Calgary housing developers optimistic about Carney's strategy, ready to see action

Hearing the new Liberal government tout an ambitious housing plan on the campaign trail has been music to the ears of developers working in the sector across Canada.

But in Calgary, where accelerated population growth in recent years has hit the city during a national housing crisis, optimism for the federal strategy is tempered by desire to see more details about how its plan will play out on the ground.

CBC News spoke with several leaders in Calgary's affordable housing sector who expressed hope for the strategy that Prime Minister Mark Carney has laid out.

Attainable Homes Calgary President and CEO Jaydan Tait sees a lot to be optimistic about in the new plan, and while the Liberal Party formed a minority government that may not last a full term, he's confident there's progress the government can make quickly.

"The number one thing this government could do right now is release the $10 billion in low-cost financing to the producers of affordable housing," Tait said. "They could do that immediately at below-market, very attractive interest rates that could get us building."

But he noted that the strategy is only an idea until Ottawa can tell developers more about when and how they'll be able to access funding.

In March, Carney unveiled his housing plan which promised to double the number of homes built annually to nearly 500,000, create an organization called Build Canada Homes to act as a developer overseeing affordable housing construction, and offer billions of dollars in low-cost financing and grants.

Exceptional population growth through 2023 and 2024 led Alberta's population to recently hit five million people. Calgary has increased its efforts to build affordable housing, amid its population growth, after a city report found one in five households struggled to afford housing costs in 2021.

Now, the city has taken an aggressive approach to offering more housing, as its 2024 housing review found it recorded the highest number of housing starts in Canada last year, surpassing 20,000 units for the first time.

The new federal strategy offers funding designed to build affordable homes more quickly, and BILD Calgary Region CEO Brian Hahn said he wants to see government policy take a holistic approach to ensure buyers and renters at all wage levels have better access to housing.

"If you only deal with one rung of that ladder, you create a logjam there. So it's important that whatever policy tools are applied, apply across the entire housing continuum," Hahn said.

Hahn pointed to the federal strategy's commitment to cut municipal development charges in half as a "big game-changer," because the fees represent a meaningful portion of a new home's cost.

But Calgary's mayor isn't as enthusiastic about the idea.

Municipalities charge these fees to housing developers, and the funding is used to cover infrastructure costs like roads, transit, water, sewers and emergency services. Mayor Jyoti Gondek warned the cut would leave Calgarians to pick up the slack and pay more in taxes to keep critical infrastructure properly funded.