Housing Minister Sean Fraser shed light on the intricacies of the government's latest housing plan, emphasizing the need to address numerous details and collaborate with other levels of government. Blacklock's Reporter says the plan, which echoes figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), underscores the significant challenge of tripling annual housing starts to achieve affordability."There's a lot of details that we need to work out because some of this will involve collaboration with other levels of government," Fraser stated. "The program details need to be worked out."When questioned about the targets outlined in the plan, Fraser clarified, "We actually have a very clear picture of the number of homes that we expect to be built."The CMHC's 2022 report highlighted the necessity of constructing 3.5 million new homes beyond ordinary construction to address Canada's housing affordability crisis by 2030. Cabinet's budget proposal aims to exceed this figure by building an additional 3.9 million homes by 2031."One of the explicit goals of the housing plan is to achieve a level of affordability where Canadians across the income spectrum can find a place to live at 30 percent of their income. We're trying to build enough homes to get there," said FraserHowever, achieving such ambitious targets presents significant challenges. With current nationwide housing starts averaging 244,000 per year, building an additional 3.5 million homes over the next six years would necessitate an annual total of 827,000 housing starts.Bob Dugan, CMHC chief economist, expressed skepticism about achieving these targets, citing factors such as high interest rates, material costs, and labour shortages."The three-and-a-half million is an enormous undertaking," remarked Dugan. "It is going to be difficult to attain."Dugan emphasized the need for innovative solutions to overcome these challenges. "We need to come up with very innovative ways to build using existing capital and labour in order to get this job done," he said. "Because this is innovation that hasn't happened yet, it is hard to point to a solution. But it is going to be difficult."
Housing Minister Sean Fraser shed light on the intricacies of the government's latest housing plan, emphasizing the need to address numerous details and collaborate with other levels of government. Blacklock's Reporter says the plan, which echoes figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), underscores the significant challenge of tripling annual housing starts to achieve affordability."There's a lot of details that we need to work out because some of this will involve collaboration with other levels of government," Fraser stated. "The program details need to be worked out."When questioned about the targets outlined in the plan, Fraser clarified, "We actually have a very clear picture of the number of homes that we expect to be built."The CMHC's 2022 report highlighted the necessity of constructing 3.5 million new homes beyond ordinary construction to address Canada's housing affordability crisis by 2030. Cabinet's budget proposal aims to exceed this figure by building an additional 3.9 million homes by 2031."One of the explicit goals of the housing plan is to achieve a level of affordability where Canadians across the income spectrum can find a place to live at 30 percent of their income. We're trying to build enough homes to get there," said FraserHowever, achieving such ambitious targets presents significant challenges. With current nationwide housing starts averaging 244,000 per year, building an additional 3.5 million homes over the next six years would necessitate an annual total of 827,000 housing starts.Bob Dugan, CMHC chief economist, expressed skepticism about achieving these targets, citing factors such as high interest rates, material costs, and labour shortages."The three-and-a-half million is an enormous undertaking," remarked Dugan. "It is going to be difficult to attain."Dugan emphasized the need for innovative solutions to overcome these challenges. "We need to come up with very innovative ways to build using existing capital and labour in order to get this job done," he said. "Because this is innovation that hasn't happened yet, it is hard to point to a solution. But it is going to be difficult."