QUESTION PERIOD — Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
National Housing Strategy
June 15, 2026
Senator Moreau, the Federal Housing Advocate’s recent report outlines the importance of keeping human rights central in order to address the deepening housing affordability crisis.
Under the National Housing Strategy Act, Canada is obligated to provide affordable and available housing, yet the number of people living unsheltered has more than doubled since 2020. Canada is missing an estimated 4.4 million affordable housing units. The report recommends a broader use of non-market permanent housing.
The Federal Housing Advocate and the National Housing Council have both recommended that Canada must aim to have 20% of housing non-market by 2060. How is the Carney government addressing human rights to housing in Canada to meet this target?
The government is doing it with the Build Canada Homes program, an initial $13 billion in capital to bolster industry and other orders of government and Indigenous communities to build affordable housing at scale and at speed; by protecting existing affordable rental housing, with $1.5 billion in the Canada Rental Protection Fund; and by building transitional and supportive housing to address homelessness with a $1-billion fund.
We are already seeing that housing markets are easing in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa. This morning, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported that Canada was experiencing “. . . record rental and . . . missing middle construction,” which translated to an easing of rental prices in cities.
Another recommendation from the Federal Housing Advocate was for the strategies of the government to ramp up inclusion and consultation with civil society experts. Can you tell me, please, whether that is happening as part of the major projects that are being announced?
I understand that the government is working with all partners — provinces and municipalities — everywhere in Canada: in the Atlantic, with $443 million; in British Columbia, with $2.3 billion; in Ontario, with $3.29 billion; in the Prairies, with $878 million, in Quebec, with $2.8 billion; and in the North, with $133 million. We are working Canada-wide to make sure that housing is affordable for everybody.
