The Canadian Government announced sweeping multi-billion dollar funding as part of a “Team Canada” approach to the national housing crisis on April 2, ahead of the full release of the government’s budget later this month.

Speaking in Calgary on Tuesday, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Randy Boissonnault, alongside Calgary Skyview MP George Chahal announced an additional $400 million for the CMHC Housing Accelerator Fund, $1 billion for critical municipal infrastructure related to providing housing, and $5 billion for provinces and territories to support longer-term housing priorities.

The Calgary portion of that funding, said Minister Boissonnault, would help to develop an additional 12,000 new housing units on top of an expected 35,000 promised from a $228 million funding announcement made in November of last year.

“We want Canadians to know that we’re serious about making sure that the promise of Canada applies to everybody, and so we are going to activate a whole Team Canada approach when it comes to building more homes, so that people can have a home,” the minister said.

“It is a Team Canada approach to getting 3.5 million homes built over the next 10 years—$2.5 trillion on the private sector to get that done. That’s like the entire budget of the Canadian government of the economy for a whole year, and so we need everybody on board.”

Funding for housing would be based on a “carrot and stick” approach, Boissonault said, based on what the federal government sees as an immediate need to address housing issues nationally.

“To get access to this money, provinces and territories are going to have to commit to building more of the types of homes that Canadians need, and to ramp up supply,” he said.

“Let’s go through the list: Changing zoning rules to allow four units per lot as of right to be built, and allow more missing middle types of homes. We’re going to implement a three-year freeze on increasing development charges for municipalities with a population greater than 300,000, and we’re going to implement measures from our Homebuyers and/or the Renters Bill of Rights.”

Boissonault said the requirements were not a partisan issue to be fought over.

“This is about the fact that Canadians need more homes built now, and they need them today. I hope that provinces and territories are going to work with us to make sure that happens, and if they don’t, we’re going to go directly to the municipalities. So that’s the trigger,” he said.

“There’s a limited time offer for the provinces and territories to get on board, and otherwise we’re going to continue to do what we’ve always done, which is work directly with municipalities.”

Full details on the programs were promised by Minister Boissonnault on behalf of the government, when the budget is released on April 16.

Upzoning demand ‘sure doesn’t help’ city debate on R-CG, says councillor

Just before the debate on Calgary’s housing strategy last year, federal housing minister Sean Fraser sent a letter to the mayor and Calgary city council implying that federal housing cash could be at risk if they didn’t move ahead with plans for citywide rezoning.

There’s a public hearing on Calgary’s citywide upzoning plans slated for April 22.

Coun. Evan Spencer said that the upzoning aspect of the government’s funding plans added an unfortunate dynamic to that debate in Calgary.

“One of the things I find so difficult about this base zone conversation is we already have all the community concerns, whether it be community character trees, parking, the endless infrastructure, and what is in it for us,” he said.

“It’s just a massive headwind because it puts a considerable portion of our city, particularly the portion of our city that’s already just out of the gate, antagonistic to this, due to the politics around the conversation, just as another really significant headwind. I can see why the Liberal government would message this way, but boy, it sure doesn’t help us here.”

He also said demands to freeze municipal development charges could land wrong with consumers.

“There’s always going to be that unfortunate, reputational dynamic, and people will make money. That’s the thing, when you move with velocity, you have to let go of some of the regulation. When you let go of some of the regulations. There are bad actors out there,” he said.

Coun. Terry Wong said that based on what constituents have been saying, any level of government making funding announcements based on municipal policymaking is problematic.

“I would qualify that also: Is Calgary built on federal money? In other words, there’s a lot of good reasons why people come to Calgary, people want to live in Calgary, people want to build and invest in Calgary,” Wong said.

“Let’s presuppose that we get $0 because of this. Are we going to lose people coming to Calgary? I don’t think so. We’ve got a lot of things to offer.”

Minister Boissonnault responded to a question about the concerns of individuals uninterested in upzoning in their neighbourhoods, by asking where people would live otherwise.

“The province grew by 200,000 people last year. Where are they going to live? We got to have some density and we’ve got to have density in legacy neighbourhoods,” he said.

“Look, I want Calgary to be a 2.5–3 million person city in my lifetime. We’re only going to get that if we have the kind of density that we’re talking about… and I think we’re going to have a 55–60–70 million person country in my lifetime. To do that people need a place to call home,” Boissonault said.

‘Free market’ solution

MP Chahal said that both landowners and communities should have the opportunity to change their use and grow over time—should they choose to do so.

“Transformation is critical to building a city for the future. We need to build more housing in Calgary, we need more diversity of housing types to fill our schools in some of the older established communities,” he said.

“I think it’s really important that we avoid misinformation and the disinformation that’s been put out in the public, but focus on what’s actually happening.”

Chahal said there’s a wide range of mixed housing options that could be added.

“That doesn’t mean it’s going to be a tower next to your home. That means that it might be some gentle density of a duplex or fourplex in the right and appropriate locations.”

He compared the current debate over upzoning to the battles over secondary suites.

“I remember the days that we’re talking about, and used to approve, every single secondary suite. Without those secondary suites in our city, our housing crisis would be 10 times worse,” Chahal said.

“Whether it’s a basement suite, whether it’s a townhouse in a community, that gentle density has helped support thousands of Calgarians to get a roof over their head at home, and it’s also an investment in our community.”

Chahal said the government’s plan to invest in housing was also a commitment to free market principles.

“It’s about reducing red tape, having a free market economy, and letting homeowners who own those sites to be able to build and plan for their housing on their proposed sites,” he said.

“I think there’s an important conversation to have, and City Council should have it by hearing all voices in Calgary throughout their process. But I’m sure that this will be an important step forward to not just unlock the millions of dollars that our government has provided to the city, but to unlock so much more, so that we—as all levels of government—can tackle this housing crisis that we have across the country.”

Tuesday’s announcement was applauded by the residential housing construction industry.

In a statement from the Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) national association, it was funding that is needed for housing nationally.

“This commitment by the federal government to invest in critical infrastructure is vital to unlocking housing supply to meet Canada’s rapidly growing population, enabling more homes to be built and will help address the housing affordability crisis,” said Dave Wilkes, CEO of BILD.

The association welcomed the addition of development charge freezes, saying that they had been advocating for that given the increasing costs from those charges adding to overall housing prices.

– with files from Darren Krause