Canada will not reach the federal government’s ambitious target of 500,000 housing starts annually until at least 2035, Housing Minister Gregor Robertson told the Commons finance committee Monday.Blacklock's Reporter says the admission came during questioning from Conservative MP Jasraj Hallan, who noted that last year’s housing starts totaled 245,367 and that Canada’s peak production of 273,200 units occurred in 1976. “With that announcement, if you look at the numbers, that means you’d have to build 57 homes per hour per day, every year,” Hallan said.Robertson acknowledged the scale of the challenge. “Canada is not building at that scale. That is a longer term goal that we had,” he said, adding that the government intends to double construction over the next decade. He also cited labour shortages and industry constraints as barriers to rapid expansion..When pressed on projections from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) that housing starts will decline 4.1% next year, Robertson said the figures were only projections and that his office expects 2025 starts to fall between 240,000 and 280,000 units.Robertson stressed that global economic uncertainty has affected buyer confidence and slowed sales. “Many buyers are concerned about the current economic circumstances,” he said. CMHC analysts have warned that housing starts need to double to close Canada’s supply gap, a challenge Robertson acknowledged will take many years.The minister described the government’s housing targets as “aggressive and ambitious” but insisted they remain achievable over the next decade.
