Ottawa still pledging to double construction pace despite homebuilding headwinds

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney promised in his 2025 election platform to make investments that would double the pace of housing construction over the next decade to drive down the costs of rent and home ownership.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Annette Ryan flagged in a May 4 report that the promise was repeated in Budget 2025 last fall but was conspicuously absent from Ottawa’s spring economic update tabled at the end of April.

“While affordability and support for the housing supply were prominently profiled, no specific targets or metrics for the pace of homebuilding were provided,” she wrote.

Since taking on the fiscal watchdog role late last month, Ryan has raised general concerns about a lack of clear benchmarks for tracking federal spending priorities — particularly as the Liberals commit billions of dollars to speed up capital projects, such as housing construction.

Mohammad Hussain, spokesperson for Housing Minister Gregor Robertson, reaffirmed the pledge when asked by The Canadian Press recently whether the federal government was still aiming to double the pace of home construction in Canada.

“Through our housing and infrastructure measures, including the launch of Build Canada Homes and the Build Communities Strong Fund, as well as cutting the GST for new homebuyers, we are working toward doubling homebuilding over the next decade,” he said.

Ryan also noted that, since the fall budget was tabled in November, the pace of housing starts in Canada has “continued to lose momentum.”

“While total starts in 2025 were elevated earlier in the year by strong rental construction, the six‑month trend in housing starts has been declining since September 2025,” the May report said.

The PBO also cited a previous estimate that the Liberals’ new affordable housing agency, Build Canada Homes, will add roughly 26,000 units over five years, “which would be insufficient to achieve the previously targeted pace of homebuilding.”

Canadian homebuilders have stopped that slide in housing starts, at least briefly. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported the six-month trend in annual housing starts increased 3.2 per cent to 256,777 in April.