Build Canada Homes is ‘duplicating the bureaucracy’: NDP critic Kwan slams feds’ new affordable housing entity
NEWS | BY ELEANOR WAND | September 20, 2025
The launch of Build Canada Homes, the new federal entity which will oversee affordable housing starts on federal lands, is an “extremely disturbing” step, says NDP MP Jenny Kwan, pointing to an existing federal body already capable of overseeing affordable housing initiatives.
“Better late than never, but boy oh boy, the Liberals have been asleep at the wheel for at least the last 10 years if they haven’t realized … you need to work in partnership with the non-profit sector, with the private sector, with provinces and territories in utilizing federal lands,” said Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s housing critic, of the new agency.
Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) announced the creation of Build Canada Homes (BCH) on Sept. 14 saying it would come with an initial investment of $13-billion, and a mandate to “build affordable housing at scale” by overseeing affordable housing builds on federal land.
It will do this by collaborating with all levels of government and Indigenous communities, according to the government. The agency will also work with the private sector, including developers, a press release reads, meaning the government itself will not act as a developer, as some homebuilders were previously concerned.
But Kwan said the new entity is “duplicating the bureaucracy,” pointing to the already-existing Crown corporation, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), which has programs to finance affordable housing and was tasked in 2017 with overseeing the government’s $115-billion National Housing Strategy.
Canada Lands Company has been moved to under Build Canada Homes, giving the new body access to the government’s land portfolio, the government says. CMHC, whose total budgetary main estimates are valued at $6.3-billion for 2025-26, will continue to operate its existing programs and products, according to the government’s release.
“Why is it that the CMHC, which is the entity that’s been set up to do this work, can’t do it?” Kwan said.
“And if there are problems within CMHC, why don’t they fix those problems and eliminate the barriers existing within CMHC so that they can deliver the program?”
She said the creation of a new agency—and its partnership strategy—indicates that the government hasn’t been meaningfully involved in housing affordability, calling the move “extremely disturbing.”
“You already have an existing agency who supposedly [was] meant to do this work for decades, and now all of a sudden, they’re not equipped to do so,” she said.
“And it just begs the question: if that was the case, where was the government in the last 10 years in ensuring that those problems are fixed within CHMC?”
She added that it’s a “mystery” to her why CMHC isn’t already mandated to address affordability.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me that you have a government agency to deliver housing for Canadians, and in an affordability crisis, that they’re not mandated to ensure affordability is met,” she said.
Kwan said this could be why the feds opted for a new agency, but that she’s concerned that “scarce” resources will be used inefficiently by the new entity.
Broader housing market challenges need addressing
Kevin Lee, CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, welcomed the government’s approach to partnering with private-sector homebuilders.
“We’ve seen in experiences around the world, when governments try and become builder-developers, it’s not their expertise,” he told The Hill Times. “You have an industry set to respond to that.”
However, though he welcomed the new entity, Lee also emphasized that it would only address a fraction of the housing market.
The new entity’s builds are for low- and middle-income households, according to the government. It will “prioritize” six federal sites—located in Dartmouth, N.S.; Longueuil, Que.; Ottawa, Ont.; Toronto, Ont.; Winnipeg, Man.; and Edmonton, Alta.—where it will build 4,000 homes, with additional starts of up to 45,000 units a future possibility. Construction is expected to begin next year, using “factory-built, modular, and mass timber” fabrication methods to reduce build time.
But Lee said the government can’t drop the ball on addressing the issues plaguing the broader market.
“Pretty much 95 per cent of Canadians … live in market homes,” Lee emphasized. “And most Canadians still aspire to become homeowners one day. And we see that dream of home ownership slipping away.”
“There are lots of things we can do to help stem the tide on that. So we definitely hope the government continues to make that a focus.”
Lee said he was glad moves put in place by then-housing minister Sean Fraser (Central Nova, N.S.) aren’t being “undone,” but said the government needs “to continue to focus” on improving the market.
He pointed to the need to address development taxes, speed up permit times, increase infrastructure funding, and tackle labour shortages. Lee also said Bill C-4 “critically” needs to be passed into law. The legislation, which has passed second reading in the House, seeks to implement a temporary GST rebate for first-time home buyers for homes valued at under $1-million, among other tax measures aimed at addressing affordability.
But, with the legislation stalled for months since the House rose for summer break, it “had the exact opposite effect,” Lee said.
“There were all kinds of uncertainty,” he said. “So, lots of first-time buyers ended up not buying this summer, which means construction got held up.”
Kwan echoed Lee’s sentiments that the BCH doesn’t touch the broader housing crisis.
“This proposal that they’ve announced is only a drop in the bucket,” she said. “It really is miniscule to the magnitude of the crisis that we face.”
She highlighted the need to address the struggles facing renters in Canada, as well, pointing to the issue of “reno-evictions” whereby tenants are evicted to make way for property upgrades. These renovations often result in landlords raising the property’s rental price after construction is completed.
Kwan said the NDP has plans to introduce legislation this session aimed at addressing the housing crisis.
In June, Kwan reintroduced her private member’s bill, C-205, which aims to amend the National Housing Strategy Act to prevent the removal of encampments on federal land and include Indigenous people in the development of their own housing programs, among other changes to the act. It was originally introduced in November 2021.
