Trudeau announces $15B more for apartment construction loans
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday the next feder‐ al budget will include a $15-billion top-up to the federal government's apartment construction loan program that aims to boost construction of new rental housing in Canada.
The Liberal government also intends to reform the low-cost financing program's criteria to increase eligibility and leverage the soon-to-be $55-billion program to en‐ courage provincial and terri‐ torial partnerships aimed at boosting rental housing con‐ struction.
Trudeau's "Canada Builds" announcement is the latest in a string of campaign-style announcements that are ex‐ pected to continue until Fi‐ nance Minister Chrystia Free‐ land tables Budget 2024 on April 16.
"Canada Builds is going to turbo-charge affordable apartment construction in partnership with provinces and territories," Trudeau said at a news conference in Toronto. "It will provide lowcost loans, help speed up de‐ velopment and build projects of the scale necessary to meet the urgent needs of Canadians."
"We're going to make the entire pot of funding avail‐ able for matching partner‐ ships and territories that come to the table with ambi‐ tious and fair housing plans," said Trudeau.
If provinces and territories want to access the federal fi‐ nancing, they will also need to meet benchmarks set by a recent federal-B.C. partner‐ ship to build thousands of rental units.
These include commit‐ ments to build on govern‐ ment, non-profit, commu‐ nity-owned and vacant lands and a commitment to streamline processes to cut development approval time‐ lines to no longer than 12 to 18 months.
The $15-billion top-up to the Apartment Construction Loan Program (ACLP) follows another $15-billion top-up announced in the federal government's fall economic statement. With the new cash infusion, the program now aims to finance the con‐ struction of over 131,000 new rental units across Cana‐ da by 2031-32.
The government says since its launch in 2017, ACLP has committed over $18 bil‐ lion in loans to support the construction of more than 48,000 new rental units.