The federal housing minister says he wants to ramp up the lagging pace of homebuilding in some provinces by bringing developers off the sidelines and into Ottawa’s affordable housing projects.
Gregor Robertson also said the feds’ new Build Canada Homes agency is working on getting Canadian banks and pension funds to play an active role in financing affordable homes.
Robertson sat down with the Canadian Press recently as MPs returned to the House of Commons and Prime Minister Mark Carney rolled out the Liberals’ latest affordability policy — a top-up to the GST credit pitched as a way to help Canadians cope with the rising cost of groceries and other essentials.
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Build Canada Homes launched in September with an initial $13 billion capitalization. The agency was tasked with scaling up affordable or “non-market” housing and carries much of the burden of a Liberal promise to double the pace of home construction.
The term “non-market” indicates projects that typically have support from government or other sources, allowing units to be rented out below market rates.
While most Canadians won’t live in non-market housing, Robertson said mixed developments — with some affordable units and others offered at market rents — can help to stimulate more activity across the price scale.
One of the first Build Canada Homes projects announced, the 540-unit Arbo development in Toronto, will be at least 40 per cent affordable housing when complete.
The Liberals have been trying for years to stimulate homebuilding in Canada, in part by offering funding directly to municipalities to change zoning and lower other barriers to construction.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported housing starts were up 5.6 per cent across the country in 2025. The single-digit gain was driven by a flurry of building in Alberta and Quebec, while Ontario and British Columbia saw outright declines.
Robertson acknowledged the mixed results across the country during his first few months in the housing portfolio. He also acknowledged that in order to meet the Liberals’ lofty homebuilding targets, the bulk of the construction will have to be led by the private sector.
The pace of that private sector construction is dictated by market conditions — interest rates, material prices, homebuyer demand — that are largely outside the government’s control.
But Robertson said Ottawa will look to smooth out the valleys in the market by “crowding” investment from the federal government, the provinces and other partners into affordable housing.
The pitch, as he put it, is that when developers don’t see a business case for a new project in the market, Build Canada Homes can step in to make a proposal for affordable housing more attractive.
The agency has received 450 applications so far from a mix of proponents, the minister said. Some are led by the provinces, some are for community housing proposals and some are led by private sector developers.
Robertson said his quest to fill the affordable housing gap won’t necessarily mean Ottawa is bankrolling those efforts alone. He specifically mentioned Canadian banks and the country’s pension funds as pools of capital he’d like to see deployed for affordable housing.
“My hope is that we can attract capital by dramatically reducing the risk with affordable housing projects. The federal government, in partnership with other levels and investors, can de-risk affordable housing and make it a long-term stable investment for Canadian capital.”