Human Resources Committee on Jan. 26th, 2026

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

Well, we have to get Parliament's support for the build communities strong fund within the budget process that we're in now.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Just for the record, housing sales are down 43% or 49% in the GTA. I would suggest that, arguably, the biggest supply gap for housing in this country happens to be in the GTA. If that is the case and housing starts are dropping precipitously, we need to be building, as the CMHC tells us, close to 500,000 units a year. We're building 259,000. We're building really none in Toronto, none in the GTA and very few in the Lower Mainland.

In fact, builders of homes are laying people off. It's already happening. Not only will the government not be collecting huge GST cheques off new homes, but you're going to be losing jobs in this industry.

You indicated on one of these podcasts that big, sweeping changes are a bit risky—like cutting the GST on all new homes under $1.3 million—and that you would try these little things to see what would happen. How many jobs should be lost before we do the big things?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

We are doing big things with Build Canada Homes. This is the largest single investment in affordable housing that we've seen in Canada in a budget, and that is scaling up the construction of affordable housing, which is what Canada needs first and foremost—

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I need you to define “big things” for me. How many units have you announced with Build Canada Homes so far?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

In the first couple of months, we have over 7,500 homes that are now enabled, and tens of thousands more that are working their way into the system and will be announced in the coming weeks.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

How will Build Canada Homes help us get to 500,000 units a year?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

The 500,000 is what CMHC has estimated, based on the research, as the number that we need to build to catch up for decades of not building enough housing in Canada, so it's a long-term goal to scale up construction. We have to do construction differently. We have to use modern methods of construction so that we can build faster and more affordably, and we also have to ensure that we are hitting those affordable targets first and foremost.

If we are not building more non-market, affordable housing, we're going to continue to have the huge challenge we have with homelessness and the challenges we have for young people affording affordable homes.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

You cannot sacrifice market housing in the process.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Aitchison. You will be up again, as I see from my list.

Ms. Koutrakis, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here with us today, and thank you to all the witnesses who are here.

This a great segue, actually, because I was going to speak to you about the next generation of young people and how we keep hearing that homes are not affordable and how they have a bit of a hard time purchasing their first home.

I was just wondering if you could please speak to how Build Canada Homes is supporting both affordable housing and meaningful employment for the next generation, not only for the youth, but for job creation in general.

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

Through the chair, I thank the member for her question.

We need to focus on affordability for young Canadians. Build Canada Homes has a significant commitment along those lines to make sure that we're building affordable housing, first and foremost, that will benefit our younger generation. We have additional measures in this budget for first-time homebuyers, such as a GST cut of up to $50,000 for first-time homebuyers for homes up to $1 million, and an extension for homes up to $1.5 million, which is needed in some of the more expensive markets.

That's very dramatic. We're investing billions of dollars to help first-time homebuyers and young Canadians access their first home.

We're also supporting the home-building industry at a time when.... Our MP was just asking questions about challenges with housing starts. We need to be building more for first-time homebuyers. That incentive is a really important piece of the puzzle, but overall it's about getting our numbers up, getting our productivity up and making sure that we're leveraging public dollars alongside private investment, whether that's developers investing in projects that are helped with financing by Build Canada Homes, or ensuring that we're investing to scale up an industry that makes housing more affordable and can build faster.

It's a comprehensive approach with Build Canada Homes. We're going to see a focus on student housing. We've had lots of proposals coming from student housing developers, non-profit and for-profit combined, to deliver housing for students, which is obviously a critical element for the housing continuum, as well as for middle-market housing for young Canadians to access the market.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you.

We've now reached the 100-day mark since the launch of Build Canada Homes. I'm wondering if you could speak to us a bit about what the initiative has already been able to accomplish in that time, and how these early results are helping advance the government's housing objectives.

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

Certainly.

Since the launch in September, we have seen several landmark agreements with provinces. We have an agreement with Nova Scotia, as well as with Quebec, which was made last week. We have agreements with Ottawa, where we sit today, to scale up affordable housing in the city. In the partnership with Ottawa, as an example, they will fast-track their approvals and densify alongside the federal government on federal lands here in the city of Ottawa.

We have a big effort with the Government of Nunavut right now to get over 700 homes built in Nunavut. It's a much-needed component of the Nunavut 3000 housing plan.

We're seeing great uptake across the board. We have fantastic proposals from other provinces, as well, which are working their way into the system. We have six federal land projects that are now advancing toward construction in Longueuil, Shannon Park, Ottawa, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

In Toronto, we just announced Dunn House, which is a supportive housing project, partnering with the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario to get 54 homes for supportive housing. That is really essential as part of a solution for homelessness. There's $1 billion in Build Canada Homes that's earmarked for supportive housing, which is the ultimate solution for homelessness if it has the appropriate wraparound health supports to help people get off the street and out of shelters, and transition into secure, long-term housing.

We're seeing commitments already in place for thousands of new affordable homes. Shovels are going into the ground this year, and I expect tens of thousands to be coming through in the proposals in the months ahead.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you, Minister Robertson.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for two and a half minutes

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Minister Robertson, as I said before, this is a very serious issue in Quebec and many different groups are affected. Housing is an issue for the elderly, and the Fédération de l'âge d'or du Québec would like to know if Build Canada Homes will have a stream dedicated to housing for the elderly.

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

Thank you for the question.

Build Canada Homes is looking forward to building affordable housing for everyone who's in need of it, including seniors. We anticipate a lot of proposals related to seniors' housing. There's undoubtedly a real need. We're also seeing many local governments coming forward with changes as a result of the housing accelerator fund where they are adding density in existing neighbourhoods. Four as-of-right—four homes on one parcel—is now becoming a pretty standard approach in the planning departments of hundreds of cities and towns across Canada. This enables seniors to move into homes that are built within their neighbourhoods; they don't have to leave a neighbourhood if they need to change their housing.

I think we're going to see a number of different solutions. Build Canada Homes will certainly be part of delivering affordable housing for seniors and ensuring that they have access as a priority.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Minister Robertson, I have many questions to ask you, but I'll end with this one.

There was a program aimed at homelessness and homeless camps. In December, with winter at our door, it was announced the program wasn't going to be renewed. In early January, I met with organizations in my riding, such as Auberge sous mon toit, Partage Notre-Dame or Le Passant, and they were very worried. This decision means there are fewer spots and beds available in the middle of winter, and people need to stay warm.

Can the decision about this extremely important program on homelessness be reversed so homeless people can get the help they need?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

Once again, thank you for the question.

We have several programs around solving and tackling homelessness in Canada. Reaching Home is the overarching program; it has supported almost 10,000 projects since 2019. About 200,000 people have been helped; 110,000 people have been housed as a result. That program is coming up for potential renewal, as well as the unsheltered homelessness and encampments initiative, which was in budget 2024. That was $250 million over the last two years.

We will be reviewing these programs for next steps. The urgent need is very clear, I think, to all of us right now, so we'll be reviewing that. I look forward to hearing from you on your needs across the country as we consider next steps with program renewal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madame Larouche.

Mr. Aitchison, you have five minutes, please.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, you indicated that there are about 400 proposals currently before Build Canada Homes. Can you give me top-line numbers? How many units do those 400 proposals represent? Do you know?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

I think for those details.... You will have Ana Bailão coming before the committee. It sounds like she is on your list in terms of witnesses. She can give you updated numbers on—

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

You don't have them. That's okay. That's fine.

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

I don't have a top-line number, and they're coming in every day right now, which is fantastic.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Okay.

You mentioned about 7,500 units that Build Canada Homes has approved that were, I guess, in truth, already in the works with the Canada Lands Company, but that's okay. We'll grant you that. They've somehow accelerated things.

So, there are 7,500 units. How many more affordable units do we need to augment the market housing with to get us to that 480,000 to 500,000 units per year? Of that mix, how much needs to be affordable?