Thank you for your question.
With the Build Canada Homes investments—the $13 billion that is before us in budget 2025—we are looking at buy Canadian criteria. Proposals coming in will be considered by the investment committee based upon affordability and scale. Obviously, we want to see both—significant affordability and scale—with a positive impact on their communities, but we want a buy Canadian approach. We want materials from Canada, wherever possible, with Canadian wood ideally, given the challenges faced by the softwood industry. We have Canadian steel and Canadian aluminum that make great building products as well.
Overall, modern methods of construction are a priority for Build Canada Homes. Over 800 companies across Canada are manufacturing different components of housing. Sometimes, like in the Nunavut housing example, from the launch, those are volumetric, or they're entire modular homes. In other cases, they're panels, or they're kitchen and bath pods. There are different components of homes that are manufactured. We want those to be manufactured in Canada with Canadian jobs and with a Canadian supply chain.
Whenever the materials can be Canadian produced, that is going to be an advantage for our economy. Obviously, we'll make those proposals...better received—let me put it that way—versus those that don't have Canadian materials.
We're making sure that there is a very clear message in the investment policy on the Build Canada Homes portal, on the website. We're making sure all of the partners, the proponents bringing their projects forward, understand that we want a buy Canadian approach with our investments here.
