Ottawa-windsor remain at odds over housing starts
Up to $10 million in funding could be at stake over discrepancy
A federal Crown corporation that keeps track of housing construction across Canada said it will continue to count Windsor's housing starts the same way it always has despite insistence from city hall this week that those numbers are wrong.
In an email to the Windsor Star, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said it continues to follow its existing methodology for collecting data: hiring people to verify housing starts through site visits.
The organization is “not in a position to comment on how different municipalities collect and report housing data,” said CMHC spokesperson David Harris. However, “CMHC is working with the City of Windsor to address any concerns about housing starts data collection and improve processes where there are opportunities to do so.”
The message comes days after Windsor council heard that a city staffer has been assigned to count the housing starts attached to each building permit the city issues. Those numbers were submitted to CMHC this week to “rectify” a discrepancy between the city's building permit numbers and the number of housing starts the agency recorded in 2023.
The city issued building permits for 1,154 housing units last year, Jelena Payne, Windsor's commissioner of economic development and innovation, said on Monday. For that same period, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation recorded only 346 housing starts in Windsor, short of its provincially set target of 953.
Harris told the Star that CMHC employs “field enumerators” to verify housing starts using building permits provided by municipal planning departments.
“These visits are used to confirm that new residential units have reached set stages in the construction process,” Harris said. “Since most municipalities issue building permits, they are used as an indication of where construction is likely to take place.”
A housing start is defined as the beginning of construction work on a building. Usually, this is when the concrete has been poured for the building 's footing or an equivalent for a building without a basement.
For a multi-unit structure, Harris said, “all units in the structure are counted as starts once the building's foundation is poured, or (an) equivalent stage begins.”
The CMHC also uses the results of Statistics Canada's monthly building permits survey as a frame of reference for conducting its monthly building starts and completions survey, he said. The Statistics Canada survey collects data on the value of permits issued by Canadian municipalities for both residential and non-residential buildings, and the number of residential dwellings authorized.
There's much at stake in those reported housing numbers, and it could have a future financial impact on Windsor. If it reaches its housing targets, the city may be eligible for up to $10 million over three years from Ontario's Building Faster Fund.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens on Monday said the city would begin counting projects with shovels in the ground, verifying federal and provincial data.
“We want to make sure that if we're using that as the measure that we are also counting the same thing,” Dilkens said.
“You're not supposed to start construction until you've received the permit — no one knows the issuance of the permits better than us.
“We're going to make sure that we are counting as well to make sure that this gap doesn't exist moving forward.”