Canada wants to double home construction but needs workers

Canada’s housing minister has a daunting target in front of him as his government tries to rein in skyrocketing housing prices: doubling the pace of housing construction in the country within 10 years.

Canada’s housing minister has a daunting target in front of him as his government tries to rein in skyrocketing housing prices: doubling the pace of housing construction in the country within 10 years. 

But Ahmed Hussen, who was appointed to the job after last year’s election, says Canada doesn’t have a choice if it wants to keep expanding its economy and attracting skilled immigrants.

“The issue of housing supply is critical to our future success as a country,” Hussen said in an interview with Bloomberg. 

Canadian housing prices were already high before the pandemic before rising by more than 50 per cent in the past two years. The price surge has become one of the top political issues in the country. 

There’s significant debate about what’s driving it, with limited housing supply, a high level of immigration, investor activity and extremely low interest rates all cited as factors. But with younger families increasingly priced out of owning a home in most large cities, affordability has become a major problem for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. 

His political rivals are turning their attention to it. Pierre Poilievre, the front-runner in the leadership race for the opposition Conservative Party, posted a video on Twitter this week that slammed the cost of housing and blamed the Liberals’ spending record, as well as municipal government “gatekeepers.”