Mr. Chair and members of the standing committee, good afternoon and thank you for the invitation to address you today on a very important matter for Canadians, which is housing supply and home affordability.
I am the CEO of BILD Calgary Region. We are a not-for-profit association representing the diverse voices of approximately 600 member organizations involved in all aspects of land development and the home-building industries. We are part of a three-tiered organization affiliated with our provincial colleagues at BILD Alberta and, nationally, with the Canadian Home Builders' Association.
As you will see, my colleague from the Canadian Home Builders' Association, Kevin Lee, CEO of CHBA, is with me.
The primary goals of our members are to ensure the affordable, vibrant redevelopment of established neighbourhoods and the development of new communities. Accordingly, BILD Calgary Region advocates for affordability, innovation and choice in the new home building industry. Notwithstanding more recent price increases in demand and prices, Calgary region house prices are amongst the most affordable when compared to other major Canadian metropolitan areas. A meaningful measure of credit for that needs to go the the City of Calgary, as well as the municipalities surrounding Calgary, for their effort. Similar recognition is due to our developer, builder, trade and supplier members for their diligence, creativity, innovation and commitment to affordability.
However, in recent years we have seen this house price advantage erode with significant increases in demand as supply struggles to keep pace. As this relative affordability erodes, the prospect of buying a home has become increasingly more daunting for many in the Calgary area, including first-time homebuyers. The matter of market-priced home affordability is often dinner table conversation with our four young adult children. Like my wife and I when we were their age, our children and their partners seek the independence and security of owning their own home.
Our members agree with the aims in the most recent federal budget. Most particularly, to make housing more affordable, more housing needs to be built and building more housing will require investments. Like other groups, we believe there is a common need for bricks and mortar. To achieve this, investment in hard assets is required, particularly infrastructure hard assets that build the capacity necessary to create and connect housing supply.
These types of assets include water, waste water and storm water lines and treatment facilities; transportation infrastructure including public transportation; and other community infrastructure such as fire, police and emergency response stations. Investment in those types of connecting hard assets—sometimes called off-site assets—creates the capacity required to connect new housing supply. Those same hard asset investments leverage the private investment of developers, home builders and others in the value chain, as well as other investments from provincial governments and municipalities to create housing supply. We believe there will be returns for all those investors, including all orders of government that invest. Returns to government and the generation of public wealth will come by way of incremental income taxes, property taxes, utility revenues and the like, which is all driven by associated employment, employment growth and private investment.
Further, we support the goal to incentivize cities and towns that are stepping up to get more housing built. Any program to drive a particular result must have an associated reasonable set of measurement. Simply put, what gets measured gets done.
We encourage fully transparent measurement and reporting of all government funding for housing, including the demonstration of the value-for-dollar on those investments. To support this, we encourage the adoption of a set of guiding principles similar to those adopted by the City of Calgary for their off-site levy program. Those guiding principles could include commitments to financial sustainability and resilience; accounting for the benefits that development brings to municipalities; the competitive attraction of private investment; genuine collaboration and consultation between government and industry; full transparency and accountability in respect of public and developer funds; and alignment and compliance with applicable laws.
Lastly, we encourage all orders of government to support the development of a competitive Canadian supply chain capacity. There may be many lessons to heeded from our collective experience over the pandemic, but competitively improving national self-reliance is almost certainly one that will serve Canadians well in the uncertain international future.
On behalf of BILD Calgary Region and our members, thank you for your focus on the important matter of investment in leading infrastructure in support of housing supply and improving market-priced home affordability for Canadians.
I'm available for your questions.