Canada’s Housing Minister Gregor Robertson has announced he is reaching into taxpayers’ pockets and extracting $11.5 billion to fold Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Build Canada Homes into a new crown corporation.
A crown corporation is just another way of saying “bureaucracy” without saying “bureaucracy,” and if there is a bureaucracy that doesn’t just burn through money, I’ve never heard of one.
Robertson’s announcement was painfully short of details.
“This is just a start,” he said. “We’re at the very beginning of the work that is needed, but despite the challenges, we are building momentum,” adding, “it’s the next step in addressing Canada’s housing crisis,” as reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
What that work will be was not itemized by Robertson, just a bunch of pie-in-the-sky mumbo jumbo that the crown corporation would dispose of public lands, subsidize public housing, and provide advice through a CEO and board of directors, plus, “invest in ventures or enterprises including through the acquisition and development of property that is likely to benefit the supply of affordable housing.”
“We are in a housing crisis, one that is the result of three decades of underinvestment in the construction and maintenance of Canada’s affordable housing,” he said. “At this pivotal time in Canada, Canadians elected us with a mandate to build.”
Which raises questions, the first being: Is there still a housing crisis in Canada?
When COVID-19 hit six years ago, the Bank of Canada took its overnight rate down to 0.25%. Canadians rushed to get low-interest-rate mortgages and bought just about every home standing in the country. The supply of homes reached zero, sending prices soaring into the stratosphere, pushing affordability into crisis mode.
That was then, and a new report from RBC Economist Rachel Battaglia looks at now.
“Canada’s housing market started 2026 with more product on the shelf and fewer takers, a combination that kept prices lower in many of the country’s largest cities,” says Battaglia, adding, ”sales plummeted in Vancouver and Fraser Valley, as well as in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Saskatoon.”
“Calgary, until recently Canada’s standout sellers' market, saw January sales rise 7.3% from December,” says Battaglia. “Gains were overshadowed by an even larger jump in new listings, resulting in a 4.7% annual drop in the composite benchmark and lots of residential construction in the pipeline suggesting supply would stay high.”
The Greater Vancouver Area and Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have the most influence on the so-called ‘Canadian housing market.’
On the West Coast, sales “plunged nearly 30% on a seasonally adjusted basis from December, and the MLS HPI benchmark price was down 5.7% year-over-year,” says Battaglia, adding, “listings sit significantly above historical norms,” keeping leverage in “buyers’ hands, and prices on a downtrend.”
"Sales in the GTA contracted 9.9% seasonally adjusted from December, the fourth straight monthly decline, while new listings picked up marginally,” she says, adding “leaving the stockpile of inventory sitting idle,” even while the MLS Composite Home Price Index “remained on a downtrend through January, dropping 8% from a year ago, the 22nd consecutive decline and sharpest drop in three years.”
In both markets, “potential buyers remained cautious despite elevated inventory giving them the upper hand,” says Battaglia.
So, here’s the second question: Why is the Liberal government spending $11.5 billion on a problem that seems to be solving itself?
Taxpayers’ dollars have already been spent on increasing housing supply, the $4.4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), introduced in 2022. As of early 2026, $4.37 billion has been spent through 241 agreements, including a massive $900 million agreement with the Province of Quebec (which raises another question).
Robertson’s legislation, known as Bill C-20, does not identify the number of homes expected to be built, define performance measures, or clarify affordability, prompting industry experts to ask questions.
Liberals create crises, such as a housing crisis, in the run-up to and during election campaigns. So this question: Does Robertson’s $11.5 billion bureaucracy signal a federal election in the spring?
The Liberals are denying it, leading to this question: Have they ever put shade on the truth before?