Finance Committee on May 25th, 2026

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you.

I'd like to thank our witnesses today for their remarks. There's a lot to ask here, but I would like to start with Mr. Lancastle.

In your opening note, you mentioned that you're concerned about labour shortages, but of course we are also seeing reports that up to 100,000 construction jobs are at risk in Ontario alone. Could you comment on what is happening in the industry and what the dynamic is that's causing these two issues to occur?

[Ken Lancastle]

It's important to recognize that, as a national association and a national industry, construction is subject to regional and episodic variations. You will hear stories about some regions slowing down, while at the same time other regions are actively asking for more people. Again, the nature of the industry is highly regional and episodic, so there are going to be stories like that and numbers that appear like that.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

What's happening in Ontario specifically, then? That's where we see the contradiction.

[Ken Lancastle]

With Ontario, in particular, you can look to the Toronto high-rise market as one of the markets where we've seen a slowdown over the past couple of years where there wasn't a slowdown existing previously. Given the size and nature of Ontario—it is a big province—there are lots of industries and regions that will impact the nature of the construction industry in those regions.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Are you concerned about further job losses within the construction industry in Ontario? You mentioned that high-rise construction has essentially stopped. Are you concerned about that?

[Ken Lancastle]

It's important to recognize that if we focus too heavily on just local regions, we're doing a disservice to the recruitment efforts that are going to be required for meeting the moment and building up the workforce that we need for the future. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to recruit the right people to the right trades. I think it's important that we focus on where the work is going to be and what the work is going to be so that we can dedicate the appropriate resources to ensuring that we are building workforce capacity.

My fear is that if we focus on slowdowns, we are doing a disservice to some of these recruitment efforts that are required.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I can understand that.

The reason why I'm asking is that I get calls from people who are in the construction industry. Their shifts have been reduced from full time, Monday to Friday, to just a couple over the week, and this has been going on for a long time. Of course, when you think about that in the long term, there will be a long-term impact on the industry, even if it's regionally. My riding is in Ontario—that's why I was asking.

What will be the long-term impacts, and are you concerned about job losses and the loss of the skilled labour within those industries?

[Ken Lancastle]

I think it's important to recognize that we are concerned about job losses. BuildForce Canada is projecting a shortage of 385,000 workers by 2034. There's lot of experience leaving the industry. There is still a requirement to train the next generation. It is a concern that we are going to see job losses among those who will not be available to train the next generation.

This is a little bit outside the scope of what was contained in our pre-budget submission, but as an industry as well as as governments at all levels in society, I think it's incumbent upon us to really have a conversation about what types of skilled tradespeople are going to be required to meet the moment. I don't think it's enough, at times, to say we need more skilled tradespeople. I think it's important that we focus on what trades are going to be necessary to build the infrastructure required to build a stronger Canadian economy.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I'm interested in your request, in your opening remarks, that taxes on overtime be removed. Do you have any numbers on how much this would save workers?

[Ken Lancastle]

We don't have any specific numbers on how much this would save workers. Conceptually, the industry is looking to unlock the capacity that currently exists within the system. We are aware of the skilled trade shortages that we're anticipating to experience over the next decade. These recommendations were about unlocking the capacity that's already there.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you for that.

I will direct some of my questions to Ms. Lavoie.

We have seen that housing starts are still roughly 55% below the need to restore affordability. Are you concerned that the rate of development is still not enough to restore affordability anytime soon?

[Alana Lavoie]

Realistically, at the moment, yes, I think there is definitely a concern that if we don't start to see the ability to move projects forward very soon—particularly targeted, non-market, affordable projects—we are going to see challenges to returning to affordability.

It's also about the need to plan for that kind of acceleration that we also need to start even getting close to returning housing to affordability. Right now, we're in a moment where the tools seem to be starting to be there, but we need the capacity, as a sector, to step on the gas and ignite our transformative scale and building.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Of course, we have massive price and interest rate fluctuations, which contribute to the issue, with slow building times and volatile demand. Can you describe what the state of the housing market has done to families you've worked with over, say, the past decade?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Be very brief. You have about 15 seconds.

[Alana Lavoie]

It has made it harder for them to even step over the threshold of a home that they own, and it has made more of them require the kind of programming that Habitat delivers in order to have the assistance to get through that door.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you very much, Ms. Lavoie.

Thank you, Ms. Cobena.

We'll continue now with Ms. Martin for six minutes, please.

[Danielle Martin, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Thank you to all three of you for being here.

We all know that affordable housing is a very important issue for our government and, obviously, for you, so I'm very pleased that you're here.

I understand that all of you are asking for that mix of ambition, clarity—as you put it, Ms. Lavoie—and predictability, which is sometimes hard to deliver in a budget cycle, but it's understood that it's a really important set of goals.

I want to zero in a bit. I may need to move you along, just to make sure I get through all of my questions, so forgive me if I have to do that.

On this question of scale and predictability, of course predictability requires a time horizon that makes accountability more challenging. I want to drill down into this question of accountability measures that you spoke to, Ms. Lavoie. What do you think are the accountability metrics that should exist, both on the part of government and on the part of the sector, if we want to try to accelerate affordable housing accessibility in Canada?

[Alana Lavoie]

Thank you so much. It's a great question.

From my perspective, it's understanding that there are going to be unit targets. It's the very straightforward question of “How much are we building a year?” and, to your colleague's point, “How many starts do we have a year?”

It's also this question: Is the affordability landing in the right place, and are the tools that are being made available by government the ones that can actually allow us to deliver, as a sector, the level of affordability that's required to move people into the housing they're looking for?

Then, I think that a third piece is tracking suitability. Are we building what people need, when they need it, in the places that they need it? Let's just make it easy on ourselves to coordinate all that while having a progressive sense of what we're trying to achieve, both in the near term as well as over the duration of a strategy.

[Danielle Martin, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Thank you.

I want to pick up on this question of making sure that our supports are landing in the right place.

This is maybe for you, Mr. Ross, but you should all feel free to jump in. I represent University—Rosedale, which is a very culturally diverse riding in the heart of downtown Toronto. I wonder what you can tell us about what we know about who currently accesses and who uses co-op housing in Canada's cities. Does that population represent the diversity of our cities?

[Tim Ross]

Thank you very much for the question.

The answer is, generally, yes. The composition of co-operative housing is representative of our communities. We're just on the cusp of finalizing a demographic study of persons living in co-operative housing, so stay tuned. We'll be able to get even more granular on that.

Co-ops are home to community members from all walks of life. Particularly in the member's riding, there are a significant number of households that are currently uncertain about their stability and security of tenure in co-ops, due to the expiry of rental assistance. We are hoping to see some clarity on that in the very near term so that co-ops can continue to provide the security, affordability and community that co-ops are so well known for.

[Danielle Martin, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

I appreciate that because I know that in my own riding—for example, in Kensington-Chinatown—there's a fair amount of co-op housing for which it's particularly important that we think about what it means to provide a culturally safe environment for people.

I look forward to the results of that study, and maybe I'll ask you, when you get them, to share them with the committee. That would be helpful because we want to make sure that we're matching, as we've heard, our investments to the need and ensuring that we're getting the full representation of diversity in Canada, including, of course, indigenous communities.

I'm curious about mixed-use models. Maybe this is for Ms. Lavoie or Mr. Ross. What models should we be looking at that you find particularly inspiring in the mix of different kinds of supportive housing? I'm thinking about elder care, young families, these kinds of models in which we're trying to mix it up a little in these ways, rather than having hard and fast silos or categories of housing. How might we think about that in a budget context? That's for either of you.

[Tim Ross]

I can offer some tangible examples of some projects in our development pipeline that were cruising towards co-op housing development program funding and financing. A number of projects integrate child care and commercial space. Some projects are partnered with very well-known, pan-Canadian community organizations that deliver important services in the community.

Co-ops are really great because not every community organization that has a housing need needs to go out and specialize in housing. Co-ops can do that. We partner with organizations like Inclusion Canada to create more localized partnerships and inclusive housing communities.

[Danielle Martin, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

I'm personally very attracted to those models, as I know many of the people who live in my community are. Are there things that we need to be aware of, from a budgeting perspective, if we're talking about housing, but in fact these buildings are being used as multi-use spaces in a community?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Answer in 10 seconds or less.