Trudeau's plan pours billions into housing, demanding action from provinces for a brighter future
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently launched a comprehensive $6bn initiative to address Canada's acute housing shortage, underscoring the federal government's commitment to increasing the nation’s housing stock.
This initiative distributes funds to municipalities for critical infrastructure development and sets terms for provincial and territorial cooperation aimed at expanding long-term housing availability, according to the Financial Post.
The fund, as detailed in Budget 2024, is bifurcated into two significant segments. The first allocates $1bn to municipalities for vital infrastructure projects such as water and solid waste management, directly facilitating the growth of the housing supply.
The larger portion, $5bn, is earmarked for agreements with provinces and territories to support their housing supply goals, with a deadline set for January 1, 2025, for provinces and April 1, 2025, for territories.
Central to the federal strategy is a requirement for the provinces to adopt “as-of-right” zoning for fourplexes, effectively eliminating single-family zoning to ease the development of more dense housing forms like duplexes, triplexes, and multi-unit apartments.
This mandate, coupled with a three-year suspension of development charges in cities with populations over 300,000, aims to streamline the creation of new homes.
However, this condition has ignited controversy, particularly in Quebec and Ontario. Both provinces have expressed reservations, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford explicitly opposing the eradication of single-family zoning and advocating for local control over zoning decisions.
Quebec's response mirrors this, critiquing the federal overreach into provincial jurisdiction and suggesting a focus on immigration to solve housing issues. In retaliation, Housing Minister Sean Fraser suggested the possibility of bypassing provincial governments to work directly with municipalities.
The HAF, launched in March 2023 with a $4bn allocation under the $82bn National Housing Strategy, aims to catalyze the construction of 380,000 new homes by expediting construction processes and supporting municipalities with innovative housing density and affordability projects.
Seventy-two municipalities have entered into agreements with the federal government, committing to zoning changes that foster higher density housing. Cities like Toronto, Mississauga, Vaughan, and Hamilton have already benefited from these agreements.
Despite the federal push for zoning reforms, Premier Ford has doubled down on his stance that such decisions should remain a municipal matter, explicitly rejecting a province-wide policy for fourplexes.
This position reflects a broader tension between federal housing initiatives and provincial autonomy, highlighting the complex intergovernmental dynamics at play in addressing Canada’s housing crisis.
