Remarks for the Deputy Prime Minister on unlocking housing construction and launching Canada Builds

Edmonton, Alberta — April 3, 2024

Good afternoon.

I would like to start by acknowledging that we are gathered here today on Treaty 6 Territory and Metis Nation of Alberta Region 4.

I’m so glad to be in Edmonton on this beautiful sunny day, with a great group of Edmontonians who are making this wonderful city and this amazing province even better.

I’m glad to be here with my friend and colleague, Minister Randy Boissonnault, as well as our friend, Edmonton’s great mayor Amarjeet Sohi.

And I’m really glad to be here and to have talked with the Ayrshire Group, who built this great building, and with HomEd, who run it.

It has really been exciting and inspiring to see the work that the team of people who are here with me have been doing here at the Rundle.

Right here in the heart of Edmonton’s Beverly District, these new purpose-built rental homes are exactly the type of housing we need more of in Edmonton, in Alberta, and across Canada. And that is what I am here to talk about today.

We are living in a pivotal moment—and we have a plan to help every generation of Canadians get ahead.

Because today, many younger Canadians feel as though the deck is stacked against them. They can get a good job, they can work hard, but too often, they are not rewarded for their efforts.

What many parents and grandparents have achieved for themselves—a degree of comfort, and security—we want for our children and grandchildren. We want their hard work to be rewarded, as it was for us.

And that is why we are acting now to build a Canada that works for younger Canadians—a Canada where they can get ahead and where their hard work pays off.

First, we are going to turbocharge the construction of new homes across the country.

Second, we are going to help make life cost less.

And third, we are going to grow the economy in a way that works for everyone.

One of the biggest pressures on young people across Canada right now is housing, and this is particularly true for people who rent. We owe it to younger Canadians to get more homes built right now.

In order to do this at the speed and scale that’s needed, we need to create the right incentives to get builders  building and building more. And that is where our Apartment Construction Loan Program comes in.

By providing low-cost financing, the Apartment Construction Loan Program is an essential source of support to get new rental homes built right across the country.

We topped that program up with $15 billion in the Fall Economic Statement, because this is a program that makes the math work for builders—like the team who built this great apartment building.

That’s why I am so pleased to announce that, in the upcoming federal budget, we are going to top up the Apartment Construction Loan Program with a further $15 billion. That’s going to bring up the program’s total to more than $55 billion in funding.

This new funding is going to help build 30,000 more new apartments across Canada. And with this top-up, by 2031-32, more than 131,000 new apartments will be supported by this financing program.

To make the program work even better, we are introducing some reforms to the way the Apartment Construction Loan Program operates.

Earlier this year, we announced that we will be expanding low-cost loans to build more student housing on- and off-campus. We’re adding to that today. We’re going to:

• Expand low-cost loans to build more housing for seniors;
• Give builders more time to pay back their loans;
• Allow builders to apply for several projects at once;
• Provide more flexibility on affordability, energy efficiency, and accessibility requirements;
• And we are launching a new frequent builder stream to speed up the application process for proven builders.

I have been across the country at great apartments like this one and when I talk to the builders behind them, they’re really enthusiastic about the work they’re doing.

I have been talking to wonderful people who love their jobs, who are good at them, and who are really filled with purpose.

They love the idea of building nice, safe places that Canadians can afford to rent. And we want to help them build even more apartments.

This flexibility is a big deal.

We really understand that we need to listen to the people who are building purpose-built rentals across the country, so that we can help them get more homes built.

You can see the amazing results of the Apartment Construction Loan Program right here. This development received financing from the Apartment Construction Loan Program in 2021, and today, this is a thriving community that’s home to 200 people right here in Edmonton.

As I said right at the start—we need more homes like these across Edmonton, across Alberta, across Canada, and our government is determined to get more of them built, faster.

We also know that there is no single player that can fill Canada’s housing shortage on his or her own. We need to take a “Team Canada” approach to getting this work done for Canadians—and that means all of us working together and pulling every lever at our disposal to get more homes built.

It means exactly what we’re seeing here. Which is private sector, non-for-profit, federal government, municipal government, all working together to get great affordable apartments built.

That is why we are also announcing today that we are making funding through the Apartment Construction Loan Program available to provinces and territories that launch their own ambitious housing plans—through an initiative called “Canada Builds.”

Canada Builds is inspired by the federal government’s collaboration with British Columbia on their “BC Builds” program.

Here’s how that partnership with BC works: in February of this year, the Prime Minister announced that our government is working with Premier Eby and the Government of BC to build a minimum of 8,000 to 10,000 new homes through their BC Builds initiative. The federal government is providing $2 billion in loans for this initiative through the Apartment Construction Loan Program. That is a significant contribution, which BC is matching with its own $2 billion in low-cost financing. Together, we’re going to get more homes built faster in BC.

That partnership with British Columbia through BC Builds is a great example of two levels of government working together to deliver more housing for Canadians—and we want to do it across the country.

We are keen to take the same ambitious, collaborative approach to all provinces and territories across Canada.

In order to get federal funding, provinces and territories will need to meet the benchmark set by our partnership with BC Builds and deliver action to get even more homes built faster. This includes matching the federal government’s investment, making use of public and community land to build new homes, and speeding up development approval timelines.

What we want and what we need is a true Team Canada effort—the kind of bold solution our country needs to meet our housing challenge so that we can unlock fairness for every generation.  

And over the coming days, and in the budget that I’ll table later this month, we’ll launch more of our no‑holds‑barred plan to wrestle down the costs of owning or renting a home. To make real the promise of Canada for younger Canadians, we will pull every lever and push every button to deliver more housing faster.

Our renewed focus today is unlocking the door to the middle class for millions of younger Canadians. In all we do, we dedicate ourselves to making a better life within reach for our younger generations. Because it is what you deserve. And it is what your parents and grandparents want for you, too.

Thank you very much.