Human Resources Committee on June 8th, 2026

[Mathieu Laberge]

I can provide you with the exact figure. As for the order of magnitude, if we compare five-year periods, we've observed an increase.

I don't want to mislead the committee. We can gather the information and provide you with an answer on this matter. I can confirm that, from 2015 to 2020 and from 2020 to 2025, there was an increase in the number of housing starts compared to previous periods. If I may, I will get back to the committee with the exact figure.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

No problem. I just made a note of it, and we can stay in touch, Mr. Laberge.

Several witnesses at previous meetings have told us about delays of several years between the announcement of funding and the delivery of housing units. In your opinion, what is the actual average time frame right now between a project being announced, the first instalment and the first tenants moving in?

[Mathieu Laberge]

It varies greatly from one city to another and from one project to another. There is, of course, the factor of market conditions. In some cases, as Ms. Volk explained, the time between a permit being issued and construction starting may or may not be extended. This is also true for construction. Sometimes, certain construction projects move much faster because the market is ready to absorb housing units. However, when the market slows down and housing units aren't absorbed as quickly, the pace of construction may slow down.

Of course, it also depends on the size of the housing units. It takes much longer to build a large high-rise apartment building, for example. In that case, if memory serves, based on market conditions two years ago, our assessment indicated that it would take one to two years. On the other hand, for smaller units, such as four- to eight-plexes, the process is much faster.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Perfect.

Are you also seeing an increase in the demand for housing, particularly among seniors aged 65 to 74? It's getting harder and harder for them to pay their rent in seniors' housing. That's what we've heard on the ground, and there have been articles on this recently as well.

Does your data show a link between the rising cost of living and this demographic's difficulty finding housing?

Perhaps these are precisely the people who will be looking more actively for affordable housing. We need to be able to better meet their needs, given inflation and their fixed incomes.

[Mathieu Laberge]

Unfortunately, your question is not one that we've specifically addressed. On the other hand, we have observed a shift in housing preferences among older demographic cohorts—such as baby boomers, for example—they tend to stay in their current homes for much longer. So, the move from a larger home to one with more services—such as a senior living facility—or to a smaller one—such as an apartment on the rental market or a condo—doesn't happen as early as it did for previous generations.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

In my riding, there is a large municipality, Granby, but there are also several more rural communities who have a lot of questions about Build Canada Homes. Whether in Racine or Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton, communities are wondering if they will get their fair share.

In this context, at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, can you quantify the proportion of federal housing investments directed to rural or semi-rural areas compared to major urban centres?

[Mathieu Laberge]

I don't have that information. My group focuses primarily on market data, which we publish regularly.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

This remains a concern. So perhaps we can discuss this further, Mr. Laberge, because more rural communities are, after all, increasingly in need of housing.

More generally, which Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation program currently generates the most housing starts per dollar invested?

[Mathieu Laberge]

It's mortgage insurance. It helps households to access more stable, secure financing at lower rates, which brings greater liquidity to the market and leads to a higher number of housing starts.

Last year, nearly one-third of the units insured through our mortgage insurance programs were new units. So, through its volume effect, it contributes to market activity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Larouche.

We go now to Ms. Falk for five minutes.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here this afternoon.

We've heard from a number of witnesses that there is cautious optimism about Build Canada Homes. We have also repeatedly heard concerns about unclear targets, unclear funding parameters and a lack of detail on how it will operate.

From CMHC's perspective, what problem will Build Canada Homes solve that CMHC could not?

[Coleen Volk]

I would point to the Prime Minister's comments when he launched Build Canada Homes. He said that an organization is most effective if it has a narrower mandate. Build Canada Homes has a very focused mandate, focused on affordable housing, on deeply affordable housing, and CMHC will concentrate on the market housing, which is the lion's share of the market.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Okay, so CMHC wasn't able to assist in that area, then, when it came to affordable housing?

[Coleen Volk]

We were active in both. We were very active through the national housing strategy. However, the Prime Minister's view is that a narrower focus of an organization will be more effective in addressing the issues in that particular population.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Is that then how Build Canada Homes is going to differ from the work that is done at CMHC?

[Coleen Volk]

Yes, their focus will be on what we would call non-market housing or deeply affordable housing. That would be their focus, whereas we'll be supporting primarily the rest of the continuum of the housing spectrum. We will work together, though. We will have a very collaborative relationship because so much housing is mixed. Most of the way housing is built these days, particularly in rentals, is not strictly market or strictly deeply affordable. We have mixed models, so we will work together on projects. Sometimes our financing tools will be sufficient to support a project and sometimes they will not be, so Build Canada Homes will have the contributions, the deeper subsidies that can help some of these projects move forward.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

How will CMHC or Build Canada Homes ensure that projects don't fall through the cracks? We know with bureaucracy there's a lot of passing the buck and passing it to a different department—you don't fit in this box that's been outlined, but you don't fit in that box either.

How are the bureaucracies going to ensure that projects aren't falling through the cracks?

[Coleen Volk]

Housing policy is coordinated by HICC, which is Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada. The minister and the department responsible for that will attempt to coordinate our programs and our offerings at a portfolio level.

On an individual project level, CMHC's participation is more restricted now. This is because, on the housing program side of the business—the part for which the government is asking us to do things on their behalf—our flagship program is now ACLP, the apartment construction loan program. We don't have some of the other affordable housing programs that we used to have. They will be offered by Build Canada Homes. We may not be able to fill voids, but the intention in the model of creating Build Canada Homes is that they will have flexibilities beyond an individual program.

We had the affordable housing fund, which had a set of rules. We had the rapid housing initiative, which had a set of rules. Build Canada Homes is not being established in that way. It is being established with a pool of capital that its representatives can deploy to projects they feel are worthy, so there should be more flexibility.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Who is worthy? Who's deciding that, and what are the parameters to decide what is worthy and what isn't?

[Coleen Volk]

They've developed an investment policy that has been out now for a little while, and they're probably developing more details around that. They do have an investment policy that describes their priorities—

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

I think that's something that should be taken into account, because when we look at the stress test that was applied when it came to mortgages, we see that the second one didn't work for parts of the country that weren't Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. I think there has to be this whole-Canada approach to it, not just what government thinks works in Toronto, which doesn't apply effectively across the nation. I want to make sure a rural lens is put on that.

As a quick follow-up question, with these two different bureaucracies, how are builders going to know where they have to go? How can there be insurance that there isn't going to be a delay if they went to the wrong department because they may not have been aware?

[Coleen Volk]

We're working very closely with Build Canada Homes, so there shouldn't be a delay simply because they went to the wrong door and came to us when they should have gone there. We are talking daily. There shouldn't be a delay from that.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

We don't see that sometimes with places like ESDC. A lot of Canadians end up having to come to our offices because everything's siloed. It's good to hear that there's coordination and conversation between Build Canada Homes and CMHC, and I hope that continues going forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Falk. That was a key piece of information to get on the record.

Mr. Joseph, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Volk, I was listening to you earlier, and you mentioned that other indicators are important for assessing the state of the housing market, beyond housing starts. Could you explain what those indicators are and give us an overview of the current situation in this regard?