Today, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, joined by the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, and the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced new action, as part of Canada’s economic plan, to build more homes, faster, and strengthen competition to lower prices for Canadians.

“Every week, our government is taking new action to build more homes, faster, and make housing more affordable for Canadians. This week, our economic plan is unlocking more affordable homes and creating new pathways to homeownership for Canadians. Today’s investment through the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund will enable innovative homebuilders to scale-up their revolutionary techniques and build more than 5,000 new homes, faster. And we are aggressively strengthening competition, particularly in the grocery sector, to lower prices for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.”

– The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

“To solve the housing crisis, we need to change how we build homes. The Affordable Housing Innovation Fund is supporting innovative solutions developed by 8 different organizations across Canada, which is expected to help get 5,000 new affordable homes built.”

– The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities 

“With today’s announcement, we are building on our commitment to provide Canadians with more information to help them make informed choices to access high quality and affordable food by leveraging collaboration with organizations. Our government is using all the tools at its disposal to closely monitor all sectors of the economy to make it as competitive as possible for the benefit of Canadians.”

–  The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

• The Affordable Housing Innovation Fund supports innovative home builders to scale-up their ideas and disrupt the industry, to evolve the affordable housing sector and build the next generation of homes in Canada. 

• Today’s $123 million investment through the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund will support eight organizations across the country to develop, test, and streamline innovative homebuilding techniques to accelerate construction and drive innovation in the housing sector, such as with pre-fabricated, wood panel modular housing.

• Canada’s economic plan, including recent investments in the 2023 Fall Economic Statement, is building more homes, faster, and making housing more affordable for Canadians. This plan also includes:

  • The Affordable Housing and Groceries Act, which is making it more affordable to build homes by removing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on new rental projects;
  • Over $40 billion through the Apartment Construction Loan Program, which is providing low-cost financing to support more than 101,000 new rental homes across Canada by 2031-32;
  • $4 billion through the Rapid Housing Initiative, which is expected to help build more than 15,500 affordable homes for people experiencing homelessness or in severe housing need by 2026;
  • Over $200 million through the Federal Lands Initiative to build 4,500 new homes by repurposing surplus federal lands and buildings to housing providers at low or no cost by 2028;
  • Unlocking $20 billion in new financing to build 30,000 more rental apartments per year by increasing the annual limit for Canada Mortgage Bonds from $40 billion to up to $60 billion;
  • The Canadian Mortgage Charter, which details the tailored mortgage relief that the government expects banks to provide borrowers who are facing financial difficulty with the mortgage on their principal residence;
  • The new Tax-Free First Home Savings Account, which is a registered savings account that allows Canadians to contribute up to $8,000 per year (up to a lifetime limit of $40,000) for their first down payment; and,
  • Nearly $4 billion towards ending chronic homelessness, through Reaching Home, Canada’s Homelessness Strategy. 

• The Contributions Program for Non-profit Consumer and Voluntary Organizations supports consumer advocacy organizations to produce high-quality, independent, and timely research.

  • To help Canadians find lower-priced options, particularly groceries, today’s new call for projects focuses on consumer advocacy initiatives that will strengthen affordability and improve price transparency.
  • Eligible organizations include not-for-profit social enterprises or co-operatives; consortia of non-profit organizations; post-secondary academic institutions and research institutes; and Indigenous organizations.

• Freezing the merger transaction-size threshold at $93 million is the latest part of the federal government’s plan to strengthen competition in Canada, which also includes amendments to the Competition Act through Bills C-56 and C-59 and increasing the Competition Bureau’s budget, amongst other measures to lower prices for Canadians.

  • With this freeze, the Competition Bureau will automatically review all transactions above $93 million in value, with a focus on preventing mergers that would substantially prevent or lessen competition.

Associated links

• 2023 Fall Economic Statement Backgrounder: Canada’s Housing Action Plan
• Backgrounder: Merger notification threshold

Media may contact:

Katherine Cuplinskas
Press Secretary and Senior Communications Advisor
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
Katherine.Cuplinskas@fin.gc.ca

Media Relations
Department of Finance Canada
mediare@fin.gc.ca
613-369-4000

Micaal Ahmed
Office of the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
micaal.ahmed@infc.gc.ca

Media Relations
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
media@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Audrey Champoux
Press Secretary and Senior Communications Advisor
Office of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
audrey.champoux@ised-isde.gc.ca

Media Relations
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
media@ised-isde.gc.ca

General enquiries

Phone: 1-833-712-2292
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