Human Resources Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2026

[The Chair (Robert Morrissey (Egmont, Lib.)), Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

I call the meeting to order.

Committee members, the HUMA committee will resume for the second hour in public. The first item of business we have is to choose a vice-chair to replace the vice-chair we had.

I'll turn it over to the clerk to take us through the election of a vice-chair.

Madam Clerk.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Madeleine Martin]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the second vice-chair must be a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.

I'm now prepared to receive motions for the second vice-chair.

Ms. Desrochers, go ahead.

[Caroline Desrochers, Liberal, Trois-Rivières, QC]

I would like to nominate Andréanne Larouche as second vice-chair.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Ms. Desrochers that Ms. Larouche be elected as second vice-chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Clerk]

I declare the motion carried and Ms. Larouche duly elected second vice-chair of the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madame Larouche.

We will now continue with the agenda item. We're meeting today on the subject matter of divisions 34, 36 and 44 in part 5 of Bill C-15, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on November 4, 2025.

I would like to welcome our witnesses. From Build Canada Homes, we have Ana Bailão, chief executive officer, and Jean Lamirande, senior vice-president of policy and operations. From the Department of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, we have Janet Goulding, senior assistant deputy minister of the housing and homelessness branch.

Ms. Bailão, you have five minutes, if you wish, to give an opening statement before we move to questions.

[Ana Bailão, Chief Executive Officer, Build Canada Homes]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to highlight the work we're doing at Build Canada Homes to address Canada's housing crisis.

The measures proposed in Bill C-15, the budget implementation act, will equip Build Canada Homes with the authorities we need to deliver housing at the scale and speed Canadians deserve.

I am pleased to be joined today by Janet Goulding, senior assistant deputy minister, and Jean Lamirande, Build Canada Homes' senior vice-president of policy and operations.

Across the country, housing supply isn't keeping pace with demand, putting sustained pressure on affordability and availability. Addressing this requires action at scale. As a new agency, Build Canada Homes is part of a broader set of federal measures to accelerate housing construction, restore affordability and reduce homelessness. These efforts recognize that increasing supply, particularly non-market and affordable housing, requires coordinated action with partners across governments and indigenous communities, as well as the private and non-profit building sectors.

Build Canada Homes is a lean, purpose-built agency that is leveraging public lands, deploying flexible financial tools and catalyzing modern methods of construction. In doing this, we are positioned to accelerate timelines, improve productivity in the sector and support a more innovative homebuilding sector.

Build Canada Homes will also be a key driver to Canada's buy Canadian policy. By prioritizing Canadian materials, the agency will drive demand for Canadian steel, lumber and aluminum while strengthening domestic supply chains and supporting local jobs.

The measures proposed in the budget implementation act will provide the legislative authority to operationalize Build Canada Homes and ensure that it has the resources needed to deliver results. Specifically, these measures will authorize payments of up to $11.5 billion out of the consolidated revenue fund to support our operations and activities. This funding will enable the agency to partner with provinces, territories, municipalities, non-profits, indigenous partners and builders to finance and accelerate housing projects.

The bill also authorizes just over $1.5 billion to capitalize Canada Lands Company Limited, allowing Build Canada Homes to unlock construction on its portfolio sites. We have already advanced six federal land projects toward construction and committed to getting shovels in the ground this year on thousands of affordable homes. Requests for qualifications have been issued for up to 4,000 homes on federal lands across these six sites.

In Ottawa, just outside the downtown core, we will build approximately 1,100 homes on Heron Road. We will deploy the same rapid-build approach in Dartmouth, Edmonton, Longueuil, Toronto and Winnipeg to get new homes built for Canadians as quickly as possible. This is just the beginning.

Since its launch in September 2025, Build Canada Homes has delivered measurable results. The agency has formed partnerships with provinces and municipalities, forging commitments to ensure that supportive and transitional housing is matched with the wraparound services residents need. That includes 30 supportive and transitional units announced in Nova Scotia and 54 in Toronto, with further negotiations under way to ensure critical services.

Build Canada Homes is also committed to building indigenous partnerships that further self-determination and contribute meaningfully to meeting the needs of indigenous communities. Through Build Canada Homes, the governments of Canada and Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated have reached an agreement in principle to support the development of 750 units of non-market housing in Nunavut. These homes will be designed and delivered in collaboration with Inuit, for Inuit.

Bill C-15 will unlock the tools for Build Canada Homes to forge new partnerships, drive coordinated action and establish modern development models that can scale affordable housing like never before. This is how we will move from incremental progress to transformative results. By changing how Canada builds, Build Canada Homes is delivering exactly what Bill C-15 is meant to unlock: speed, scale and innovation.

Another meaningful indicator of our early momentum is the level of engagement we are seeing from across the country. Since releasing our investment policy framework and launching our national submission portal in November, we have seen strong interest nationwide. Proposals have come in from every province and territory. Many are under review and hundreds more are in progress, building a robust pipeline of projects ready to break ground in 2026.

In Ottawa, we're partnering with the city on a $400-million effort to deliver up to 3,000 new homes, with many starting constructions in 2026. In Nova Scotia, a $300-million partnership will unlock up to 1,430 homes across the province. More than half of these will be community, non-profit, supportive or transitional units. In building partnerships that prioritize non-market and non-profit housing, we are ensuring affordability in the long term.

Our goal is clear: to create a system that doesn't just build more homes, but that builds better and faster in partnership with people who make housing possible. Build Canada Homes is here to drive that change.

Thank you for inviting me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madam Bailão.

We'll now begin the six-minute round of questioning with Ms. Goodridge.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our guests for being here today to discuss this important issue.

We have a limited amount of time. I'm going to ask that you keep your answers quite short so that we can get through all the questions.

How much has Build Canada Homes, Canada's fourth housing bureaucracy, spent since its inception nearly a year ago?

[Ana Bailão]

We were announced on September 14. We are waiting for this bill to pass to actually have access to the funds.

We have done agreements with both Ottawa and Nova Scotia. This bill will allow us to spend the money. The money we've spent is actually for the 3,000 homes in Ottawa, the 1,430 in Nova Scotia, 54 in supportive housing in Toronto and 4,000 in direct builds on six sites across the country.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Okay, but how much money have you spent?

[Ana Bailão]

As I told you before, the—

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

How much money has been spent since you were created?

[Ana Bailão]

In these deals, we have $1.5 billion on the 4,000 units, $400 million on the Ottawa deal, $150 million on Nova Scotia and $22 million on Ottawa. That is the total amount that was spent on creating over 7,500 units across the country.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

You're taking credit for work that's been done by another agency, the Canada Lands Company, which is Canada's second housing bureaucracy.

Is that accurate?

[Ana Bailão]

It's not accurate.

We are developing in a very different model. We are putting requests for proposals that were not on the street. We are leveraging public land together with financial tools, which has not been done before. That is the innovation of Build Canada Homes. It is one agency having the use of public land and leverage of public land and financial tools.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you.

How many of these units that you have done are move-in ready?

[Ana Bailão]

Nine of the homes in Nunavut are move-in ready. We got the notice very recently.

All these units will have shovels in the ground in 2026. As you know, it takes some time to build the units. We're still waiting for the money from this budget bill.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you.

The first Canadian housing bureaucracy, CMHC, says we need to build half a million housing units a year. You said you've built nine. That's a long way off half a million.

Would you say we're in a housing crisis here in Canada?

[Ana Bailão]

We are one of the initiatives that the government is taking to build housing. We are focused on the non-market. As I said, the organization has been operational since September. In our first 100 days, we are working on 7,500 units. Again, we are one part of the solution. We act on one part of the housing continuum. CMHC continues to do their work and support housing and other agencies.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you.

I didn't ask that. I asked if we are in a housing crisis. Can you answer that?

[Ana Bailão]

I've been working on housing for many years, since 2010, which is when I first started working on housing. I would say that since that time, we continue to be in a very difficult situation on housing and in a housing crisis.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

CMHC's estimate is that we need half a million housing units a year. This means 46,666 a month, and we've achieved nine in seven months, which is pretty indicative that this is a failure. I think most Canadians would agree with the Conservatives in calling it a housing crisis.

[Ana Bailão]

If I could, I'd just explain that the amount of housing built in this country will be delivered by many sectors. It's not Build Canada Homes that will be delivering half a million homes. We need the private sector. We need the non-profit sector. We need the municipalities, the provinces and everybody to come together. It's not one organization that builds half a million homes. What happens...and very often I say there's not one sector, there's not one government that has to solve this housing crisis. Another thing that Build Canada Homes brings to the table is the partnership approach, in which we work together to build houses.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you for this. I appreciate that you called it a housing crisis, somewhere in the answer.

On the partnership question, just give the number. How many indigenous partnerships has your agency forged since it was created?