Office Home Amp; Student 2021 Canada

[Zenia]

For generations, one of the foundational promises of Canada's middle class dream was that if you found a good job, worked hard, and saved money, you could afford a home. For today's young adults, this promise is under threat.

Rising rents are making it hard to find an affordable place to call home and rising home prices are keeping homes out of reach for many first-time buyers. The ability of an entire generation of Canadians to achieve the promise of Canada is at risk, despite their sheer grit and hard work. Millennials and Gen Z are watching the middle class dream become less and less achievable. They worry that they won't ever be able to afford the kinds of homes they grew up in. They deserve the same opportunity to own a place of their own as was enjoyed by generations before them.

The government is taking action to meet this moment, and build housing at a pace and scale not seen in generations. We did it when soldiers returned home from the Second World War, and we can build homes like that again. And we can make sure that Canadians at every age can find an affordable home.

On April 12, the government released an ambitious plan to build homes by the millions, Solving the Housing Crisis: Canada's Housing Plan. It includes our plan to make it easier to afford rent and buy a home, and makes sure that the most vulnerable Canadians have support, too. At the heart of our plan is a commitment that no hard-working Canadian should spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing costs.

Tackling the housing crisis isn't just about fairness, it's also about building a strong economy. When people can afford housing, they can also invest in their local community, supporting local businesses and jobs. When workers can afford to live near their jobs, short commutes turn into high productivity. Businesses want to establish new headquarters in cities where workers can afford to live. When people can more easily save for a down payment, they can pursue their dreams, like starting a business. Housing policy is economic policy.

Budget 2024 and Canada's Housing Plan lay out the government's bold strategy to unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031, which includes a minimum of 2 million net new homes on top of the 1.87 million homes expected to be built anyway by 2031. Of the 2 million net new homes, we estimate that the policy actions taken in Budget 2024, Canada's Housing Plan, and in fall 2023 would support a minimum of 1.2 million net new homes.

Given the significant provincial, territorial, and municipal levers that control and influence new housing construction, we call on every order of government to step up, take action, and achieve an additional 800,000 net new homes, at minimum, over this same period.

To get this done, the government will work with every order of government, with for profit and non-profit homebuilders, with Indigenous communities, and with every partner necessary to build the homes needed for Team Canada to restore fairness for every generation.

Immigrants built Canada. And when new Canadians arrive today, our society is enriched. Canada, like other advanced economies, needs immigrants today more than ever, given our aging population. Immigrants are essential to maintaining a young and capable workforce, to ensuring we can find the doctors, construction workers, nurses, and early childhood educators that we need.

Throughout Canada's history, permanent immigration has become subject to extensive consultation with communities, provinces, territories, and employers. It is planned and designed in collaboration with Canadian society.

However, temporary immigration, which includes our student and temporary worker programs, has traditionally been demand-driven, determined by the requests from international students and workers, and from employers in Canada.

Canada has recently undertaken a review process for our temporary resident programs, to better align with labour market needs, to protect against abuses in the system, and to match our capacity to build new homes. We will also be setting targets both for the number of permanent residents we welcome, and for temporary residents.

Our ultimate goal is to ensure a well-managed, responsive, and sustainable immigration system to help balance housing supply with housing demand. We also need to be sure that our temporary worker programs do not create a disincentive for businesses to invest in productivity, or drive down wages in Canada, especially for low-wage workers.

Second, to make it easier to own or rent a home, Budget 2024 announces new action to support renters and lower the costs of homeownership. For renters, new action will help protect them from unfair practices like steep rent increases and renovictions, and unlock new pathways for them to become homeowners, including ensuring they get credit for rental payments. For first-time homebuyers, new support will make it easier to save for their down payment faster and get their first mortgage. And, existing homeowners with mortgages will benefit from new protections from rising payments through the strengthened Canadian Mortgage Charter.

Third, because everyone in Canada deserves a safe and affordable place to call home, this plan is unlocking more homes for Canadians in need. This includes building more affordable units for low- and middle-income Canadians by investing in affordable housing projects and partnering with non-profits, co-ops, the private sector, and other orders of government. This also means offering immediate support for Canadians without shelter and Canadians at risk of becoming homeless.

At the crux of this effort is ensuring that fiscal policy works in tandem with monetary policy, and that Canada's immigration policy works in tandem with housing policy. The government recently announced plans to adjust immigration programming which would lead to about 600,000 fewer temporary residents in Canada compared to current levels. These efforts are critical to creating the necessary conditions to lower interest rates, lower housing demand, and restore housing affordability.

Already, the $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund is cutting red tape across the country, with 179 agreements with municipalities, provinces, and territories enabling the construction of over 750,000 new homes over the next decade. It is working, so we are topping it up with $400 million to build more homes, faster, in more communities.

Under a new Canada Builds approach, the federal government is offering to partner with provinces and territories that launch their own ambitious housing plans, with federal financing to help rapidly increase housing supply for Canadians in every province and territory.

We must use every possible tool to build homes at a scale and pace not seen since the Second World War. The federal government is announcing a range of new measures to make the math work for homebuilders, unlock the lands needed to build new homes, cut red tape that holds back new construction, attract and train skilled workers, and accelerate the implementation of innovative ways to build more homes, faster.

Today, governments across Canada are sitting on surplus, underused, and vacant public lands, such as empty office towers or low-rise buildings that could be built on. By unlocking these lands for housing, governments can lower the costs of construction and build more homes, faster, at prices Canadians can afford.

Since 2016, Canada Lands Company has enabled the construction of more than 10,300 new homes on underused federal land, including more than 1,100 affordable homes. Over the next five years, Canada Lands Company currently aims to enable the construction of over 29,200 new homes, with a minimum of 20 per cent affordable units. Canada Lands Company is working to unlock new homes each day, but we need to do more, faster.

To ensure every Canadian has a safe and affordable place to call home, the government will transform its approach to federally owned land and lead a national, Team Canada effort to unlock public lands for housing.

Whenever possible, public land should be used for homes. Moving forward, the federal government will partner with the housing sector to build homes on every possible site across the federal portfolio. By leveraging new approaches to building homes on public lands, such as leasing, the federal government will also be able to maintain the strengths of its balance sheet.

By building homes on public lands,the federal government will lead a Team Canada effort to unlock federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal public lands across the country. The federal government will partner with homebuilders and housing providers to build homes on every possible site across the public portfolio.

The federal government recognizes that connecting existing federal financing to public lands can accelerate home construction and ensure deeper housing affordability. The federal government will explore leveraging its low-cost financing initiatives, including its new Canada Builds partnership and its new Canada Rental Protection Fund, to encourage housing providers to build more homes on public land.

Between the land, construction costs, and interest rates, the math just doesn't work to make the project viable. By building homes on public lands, Housing Society Co. will now be able to lease a parcel of land from the federal government at little to no cost upfront and can use rent proceeds to repay the lease over time.

Canada Post manages a large portfolio of land, including more than 1,700 post offices, in over 1,700 communities across the country. Many of these sites often house one-storey Canada Post buildings, which could be leveraged to build new homes across the country, while maintaining Canada Post services.

These six properties are just the start. Across Canada Post's portfolio, many more properties could be unlocked for housing, while maintaining high service standards for Canadians, including in rural communities.

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