Liberals announce $6 billion housing infrastructure fund
Construction accelerators also get top-up
OTTAWA • The Liberal government’s bid to woo younger voters away from Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives continued on Tuesday with a new multi-billion dollar infrastructure fund and topups to existing construction accelerator programs.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday in front of an under-construction Halifax housing development, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $6-billion housing infrastructure fund, which he described as a means to more quickly build more homes.
“If we want to build more homes faster, we also need to be upgrading critical infrastructure including water and wastewater,” Trudeau said, his voice competing against drum-banging and catcalls from protesters attempting to disrupt the press conference.
The Liberals have been playing catch-up with the Conservatives since the middle of last year, when Poilievre’s support among Gen Z and Millennial voters surged. The Liberals have been selling the upcoming 2024 budget as a way to get those voters back.
Billed as a plan to accelerate construction and upgrade critical utility infrastructure, the fund will include $1 billion in short-term funding to support urgent needs, and $5 billion for agreements between Ottawa and the provinces for longterm projects.
To access that new funding, municipalities must be willing to broadly adopt fourplexes “as of right,” which means no special permissions would be needed to build them in neighbourhoods zoned for single-family homes, as well as more duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and multi-unit apartments.
Cities with populations over 300,000 must also promise to halt development charge increases for three years, and adopt forthcoming changes to Canada’s national building code to, as the press release describes, “support more accessible, affordable and climate-friendly housing options.”
Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser said a new plan to address Canada’s housing crisis will be published over the next few weeks — based on building homes, supporting vulnerable Canadians, and easing the process of buying or renting a home.
“Between now and then, we’re going to be rolling out specific policies to highlight how we’re going to achieve this,” he said.
“We’re going to negotiate agreements before Jan. 1, 2025, that will require our partners to implement changes, including allowing people to build a small apartment with four units on land they already own. It’s going to include requirements that they adopt forthcoming changes to the national building code to ensure we’re building affordable and efficient buildings to provide homes for people who live in this country.”
Ottawa will also work with the province to establish a renters’ and homebuyers’ bill of rights, he said — of which adoption will be a key requirement of unlocking these federal dollars.
Tuesday’s announcement also included plans to add $400 million to the Liberals’ housing accelerator fund.
“This is how we’ll address the shortage of housing options for Canadians, and this is how we’ll make it fairer for the younger generations who feel like they’re falling behind because housing costs are too high,” Trudeau said.
“Right across the country, we’re making a lot of progress cutting red tape, to fast track the construction of hundreds of thousands of homes — but we want to go even faster and further.”
These programs will be included in the Liberal government’s 2024 federal budget, which is set to be unveiled on April 16.
Announced last year, the Trudeau Liberals’ $4-billion housing accelerator fund is the crown jewel of their housing policy. According to government numbers, 179 agreements have so far been signed across Canada to fasttrack the construction of 750,000 homes by the mid2030s.
Trudeau declined to answer questions from reporters on how the government will pay for this new spending, saying budget day is only two weeks away.
“There’s a significant change in the way housing is built across the country, and we’re going to continue doing that with this announcement today,” he said.