Feds allocate billions to combat housing crisis, anticipated upcoming worker shortage
The federal government announced its strategy to combat the "significant housing challenges" currently facing Canadians, including putting funding towards "the urgent issue of encampments."
The federal minister of employment, workforce development and official languages, Randy Boissonnault, was in Edmonton Tuesday promoting the funding.
"Housing should provide stability and security and serve as the foundation for overall well being," Boissonnault said. "Instead, we see that housing options are limited, rents are high and home prices feel out of reach, and making sure that everybody has a place to live, it's the right thing to do."
Part of the strategy is increasing funding to the Housing Accelerator Fund, which helps cities increase the number of homes built every year.
"In Edmonton alone, we had a deal, $175 million. That deal alone, just in Edmonton, is going to create 22,000 new homes over the next 10 years, and we're adding $400 million to that $4 billion across the country," Boissonnault said.
"It's not just about building more homes, it's about building the infrastructure that you need to get those homes built."
Additional renter protections and expanding the housing design catalogue were also announced. The catalogue contains standardized, pre-approved housing designs aimed at speeding up construction.
A temporary accelerated capital cost allowance for apartments and increase from four per cent to 10 per cent was also announced to incentivize builders.
"We are launching a historic public lands for homes plan to make more land available for housing," Boissonnault said. "We're going to do this by identifying and building on public lands that are underused, such as empty office buildings or parking lots."
For first-time home buyers, the amortization limit for insured mortgage is being extended, added Boissonnault. The mortgage charter will also be amended so companies will be able to give renters the option of including their rental payment history in their credit scores.
"We're also making sure on our Canadian Renters Bill of Rights we're going to develop and roll out, in partnership with provinces and territories, that renters can see very clearly the history of apartment pricing so that they can bargain fairly," Boissonnault said.
"This is going to allow us also to crack down on rent evictions and create a nationwide standard lease agreement."
- Alberta waits for details of new federal housing money, reasserts its jurisdiction over sector
- Alberta premier takes issue with feds for overstepping jurisdiction on housing initiatives
An additional $1 billion for the Affordable Housing Fund through the 2024 federal budget was also announced.
"To address the urgent issues of encampments and unsheltered homelessness, we're going to invest $250 million through Budget 2024 to support municipalities and our fellow Edmontonians and Canadians right away," said Boissonnault. "We intend that this fund gets matched by provinces and territories, so it'll be half a billion dollars.
"We're going to have to be innovative, we're going to have to be creative."
Around 700,000 skilled trades workers are expected to retire in the next five years, according to Boissonnault. Around 200,000 of those workers are from the homebuilding industry.
"We're going to provide $90 million for the apprenticeship service to help create placements with small and medium sized enterprises for apprentices," Boissonnault said.
"I'm also going to have a $10 million fund for the skilled trades awareness and readiness program to encourage young Canadians, including high school students, to start a career in the skilled trades."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.