Human Resources Committee on March 26th, 2026

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

As often happens in question period, I was cut off in the middle of my response. I should probably know better than to try to give a comprehensive answer in the 30 seconds allotted with all the interruptions.

We have a very challenging housing market now. There's a lot of uncertainty caused by the U.S. tariffs and by wars that have been impacting economies around the world. Canada is no exception.

Generally, we've seen softness in the housing market. In particular in Vancouver and Toronto, it's very acute. Other markets are actually fairly robust. It's a mix. It's complex across Canada. Certainly, people are reserved right now in terms of making big home purchases. That's something we need to address.

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

You've been doing press conferences. In your opening statement, you made all kinds of comments about how this is about a team Canada and a buy Canadian approach. Again, if we're trying to prioritize Canadian labour and Canadian materials, how exactly does a war in the Middle East make that not happen?

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

I'm not sure what the question is there. I was speaking to overall market uncertainty and challenges that we have across our markets that are caused by factors beyond our control, whether it's the U.S. tariffs or the wars overseas that have been impacting economies, including Canada's.

We have to focus on what we can control here in Canada. We can build more housing. We can use Canadian materials. We can invest in the industry to make it more productive and innovative. The important thing is moving with speed right now, given the threats to our economy and the instability.

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

I agree. We have lots of trees. We have softwood lumber supplies here. We have amazing labour that is capable of building houses here in Canada.

Your government promised to deliver half a million new homes every year, but according to the CMHC, you haven't even gotten to half of that. We have a building issue here. I know that members opposite were making comments about how interest rates were impacting prices, but interest rates haven't changed in the last little while, so I don't necessarily think that is to blame.

You said there's softening of markets in places like Vancouver and Toronto. Is that because we haven't gone after the IRGC members who are living in those communities?

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

The critical thing right now with Build Canada Homes is building affordable housing. People need affordable housing in Canada. That's what we have a shortage of.

In the overall market, we know we have a housing gap, which CMHC has identified. We need to scale up the overall industry to deliver more housing across the whole spectrum of needs. In particular, we need to deliver more affordability for Canadians. That's what Build Canada Homes is all about.

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

If we're not building the houses, then we're not going to get to the affordability, because it effectively is a supply and demand kind of a situation.

If your goal is to build half a million houses—you've identified that's how many need to be built every single year—and we're only getting to half of that target, then there is half of that supply. That's a quarter of a million homes that people could be living in that they aren't living in. This means the problem just gets worse every single year.

I appreciate the conversations around modular housing and some of that as a solution in Nunavut, but that doesn't really deal with a majority of the people who are currently dealing with homelessness. This isn't dealing with the majority of people who can't afford to buy their starter home.

It also really doesn't do anything to address one of the biggest issues in housing, which is the amount of time it takes to get permitting. In most of our major centres, it's $90,000 or $110,000 per housing unit just to get the permitting all the way through when building a house. If we could reduce that, we could make houses more affordable without having to skip any important steps. Why isn't Build Canada Homes focusing on something like that?

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

Build Canada Homes is focused on getting affordable housing built. It's focusing on non-market housing right up to the middle market, which is affordable rental housing. There may be a component of attainable or affordable home ownership coming into the mix. There are proposals for that coming forward.

The national housing strategy and the work that CMHC does are more focused on the market side. The national housing strategy is dealing with Reaching Home and the many challenges that we have with homelessness.

Build Canada Homes is focusing on building affordable housing, from supportive and transitional, which will make a huge difference in solving homelessness, right up to the missing middle housing we need to leverage and get built—in partnership. It takes the partnership and support of local governments to get this done. We're seeing good signs of that right now. We're certainly seeing more approvals than what's being built right now at the local level.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mrs. Goodridge.

Ms. Koutrakis, you have the floor for five minutes. It will then be over.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today, together with the officials. It's much appreciated. I, for one, as a parliamentarian, truly appreciate your comprehensive and full responses, because receiving those types of answers makes me feel that I'm a bit smarter when I walk away. Thank you for taking the time and for your thoughtful responses.

One issue we didn't talk about is women's shelters. I know that all of us would agree that we need to provide safe spaces for one of the most vulnerable groups of Canadians.

I was at an announcement in Vimy recently, where a transitional home benefited from the programs the government is offering. It appears, however, that there's a bit of confusion out there as to whether women's shelters can receive support through Build Canada Homes. I wonder whether you can clarify that for us.

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

Thank you for that question. I'd love to do that.

Many women's shelters are indeed eligible for funding within the $1 billion that Build Canada Homes has for supportive and transitional housing. Many use the term “shelter” more broadly, particularly in Quebec. In practice, most women's shelters operate as supportive and transitional housing.

If a women's shelter operates as transitional or supportive housing, it meets the eligibility criteria for this funding. We are working very closely with the women's shelter community, particularly in Quebec, to ensure that this eligibility is clear. There are significant needs there. We have to make sure they are addressed.

The national housing strategy has delivered, I think, over 15,000 shelter spaces, and shelters and transitional homes have been created through it in recent years. We need to continue that work, and Build Canada Homes will have an important role to play. It's critical that those women's shelters know that they're eligible if they're operating as transitional or supportive housing providers.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

I will do my very best to make sure that I deliver that message.

I also want to give you the opportunity to speak to us a bit about how Build Canada Homes is going to help minimize and avoid duplication of efforts when we're dealing with so many different partners and jurisdictions. How can this new agency help to make sure we don't duplicate our efforts?

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

That's an important concern. Certainly, I know it's something that Lindsay and the CEO of Build Canada Homes, Ana Bailão, are working through with the many proposals that are coming in.

We've seen an incredible volume of proposals, and we are encouraging our partners to pull together. Whether it's a combination of provincial, municipal, private and community sector partnerships...the more they can pull their projects together.... We've seen this pooling of projects in New Brunswick and B.C. We've seen it in Nova Scotia as well, and in Nunavut, where they are bundling projects into a proposal and are helping manage those partnerships. We need to make this as lean and efficient as possible, so we're encouraging that in the proposals that come forward.

The ones we can move the fastest on are the well-constructed partnerships that will deliver affordable housing as soon as possible and that are as deeply affordable as possible. Those are the combinations we're looking for. Of course, if we're leveraging modern methods of construction in the process with Canadian materials, that's a key piece of the puzzle as well. We are sending that message, and we're getting very significant interest in terms of proposals coming forward.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

I want to give you the opportunity to perhaps touch on rural regions. My colleague asked a question on that, but she ran out of time, so for the remainder of my time, could you tell us what's happening within rural regions?

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

It's a really important piece of this.

To my last point, we're counting on provinces and territories to bundle rural projects, in delivering for rural communities, into their provincial and territorial proposals. We've already seen some of that. In New Brunswick, 30% of their units are in rural communities, which is fantastic. We want to see that trend continue. They're definitely showing a good example for the other provinces and territories to bring forward.

In general, Build Canada Homes is working on the capacity to process projects of all different sizes. We know the needs are great in rural communities as well. We want to focus on where we can get efficiencies of scale, with big projects in big cities, but we need to do all of the above. That's how we're building this from the start. Certainly, being able to operate as a Crown corporation gives more tools and more opportunities to deliver on all of that comprehensively.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Ms. Koutrakis, thank you for raising the issue on women's homelessness and shelters. It's one of the projects I've been most proud of working with women's groups in my riding on. I would encourage every member to advocate on that side.

Thank you, Minister. That concludes this hour of the meeting. We thank you and your officials for coming.

Members, before we close, there are a couple of administrative items that I need to get your direction on.

Do we want to issue a press release soliciting briefs? Generally we do.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

I've had some discussion on the deadline for briefs. It's been suggested as April 17 at 4 p.m.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

The deadline for amendments to the bill will be April 24 at 4 p.m.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Clause-by-clause will begin at the meeting on Thursday, April 30. Do we have agreement on that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Our next meeting will be Monday, April 13, and we'll begin clause-by-clause on Bill C-222. That's very important.

With that, members, thank you for your time.

Is it your will to adjourn?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

We're adjourned.