The federal budget office on Thursday said the Liberals’ signature housing plan saw only a modest 5% increase in select housing starts. Housing Minister Gregor Robertson has said starts must double to restore affordability, per Blacklock’s Reporter. “Very little of the funding allocated under the Housing Accelerator Fund was spent in its first year,” wrote analysts. “Jurisdictions participating in the fund issued permits for 31% more units and saw 5% more housing starts than their 2018 to 2023 average.”Cabinet two years ago launched the $4.4 billion fund on a promise of 112,000 more housing starts by 2028. The program pays municipalities to speed construction approvals.“Under the fund, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has committed $4.37 billion in funding towards 230 agreements with subnational governments,” said the update. “Under these agreements, subnational governments have agreed to undertake a variety of housing initiatives towards an aggregate target of supplying 112,000 more housing units by 2028 than would have otherwise been created.”“Changes are not consistent.”.The budget office noted an increase in housing starts in urban Alberta “likely reflecting rezoning initiatives that were already well underway,” but decreased starts in urban Ontario including Toronto.Housing Minister Robertson has repeatedly pointed to the fund as a success.“We are seeing a great uptake now with the Housing Accelerator Fund,” he told the Commons June 11.“I think we have seen good success now with the Fund.”He credited managers with “incentivizing municipalities to cut red tape and increase densification” but did not detail actual housing starts..Builders construct an average 250,000 new homes annually, by CMHC estimate. Cabinet has targeted 500,000 starts annually.“Housing starts need to double,” said a July 3 CMHC report.The federal mortgage insurer has cautioned even a doubling of housing starts would not restore affordability as understood by Canadians.“It doesn’t take care of that part of the market that is most in need, the lower income folks,” Bob Dugan, then-chief economist at CMHC, testified at a 2023 hearing of the Senate National Finance Committee.“It would leave us in a position where we still have affordability challenges for certain target populations that are lower income, that are not well served by the market,” said Dugan.Doubling construction was “an enormous undertaking,” said Dugan.“It is going to be difficult to attain. I don’t see how we will attain it.”
