Canada’s housing build rate remains nowhere near what is required to bring down prices, despite a modest uptick in starts last year, according to new figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation that cast doubt on Ottawa’s pledge to dramatically accelerate construction.Blacklock's Reporter says CMHC data show urban housing starts rose to 241,171 units last year from 227,697 the year before, an increase of about 6%. Even so, the pace is less than half of what experts say is needed to restore affordability nationwide.“Housing starts are beginning this year from a weaker position,” said CMHC chief economist Mathieu Laberge. “Market intelligence suggests slowing momentum for residential construction.”Laberge said the six-month trend in housing starts was flat heading into 2026, with most gains concentrated earlier in the year. “Most of the momentum in housing construction occurred in the spring and summer,” he said. “Since September the trend in housing starts has consistently decreased.”.The national picture masked sharp regional differences. Housing starts surged 42% in Saskatchewan and climbed 32% in Québec, 31% in Nova Scotia, 16% in Manitoba, 15% in New Brunswick, 14% in Alberta and 12% in Newfoundland and Labrador.By contrast, construction declined in several key provinces. Ontario saw housing starts fall 13%, British Columbia dropped 5% and Prince Edward Island slipped 4%. In Canada’s most expensive markets, new residential construction fell 31% in Toronto and 3% in Vancouver, CMHC said.The figures come as Prime Minister Mark Carney continues to promise a dramatic expansion in homebuilding. Carney has said Canada must construct at least 500,000 new homes annually to restore affordability, a level the country has never reached. The historic peak was 273,200 units in 1976.“We will be our own best customer by relying on more Canadian lumber for Canadian projects,” Carney said last August. “Canada’s new government has a strong mandate to get big things built faster.”.Carney has argued that doubling construction to nearly 500,000 homes a year over the next decade would also boost domestic demand for lumber, steel and aluminum, sharply increasing use of Canadian building materials.Internal federal documents suggest that target remains out of reach. A 2024 Department of Housing briefing note obtained through Access to Information acknowledged current construction rates fall far short of demand.“Under current rates of production Canada’s construction industry is not projected to meet the housing supply needed to address demand and restore affordability,” the memo said.To meet estimated targets, the department warned, Canada would need to raise housing starts from an average of about 220,000 homes a year over the past five years to roughly 700,000 annually — an increase of about 220%.“Despite strong demand, output in residential construction has stagnated with fewer homes built per worker today than two decades ago,” the memo concluded.
