Carney’s new housing agency will have ‘modest’ impact, says PBO

The impact of Build Canada Homes (BCH), a new federal agency created in September, on easing Canada’s housing crisis will likely be 'modest,' the PBO report said.

A new report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) says Prime Minister Mark Carney‘s new housing agency is on track to build 26,000 homes over the next five years.

That comes after Carney said during the federal election campaign that his government would double the pace of housing construction to 500,000 a year, but without specifying in that vow whether it would be the promised new federal agency that would do so.

The impact of Build Canada Homes, a new federal agency created in September, on easing Canada’s housing crisis will likely be “modest,” the PBO report said.

The PBO report says the agency is currently on track to increase housing supply by 2.1 per cent over the next five years.

“We anticipate that the contribution of Build Canada Homes will likely be modest and estimate that the program will add about 26,000 units over five years, representing a 2.1 per cent increase in housing completions relative to our baseline projection,” the PBO report said.

The PBO estimates Canada will be short 690,000 homes by 2035 and that the housing agency’s new supply will address 3.7 per cent of that housing shortfall, the report said.

The new agency is also on track to building an additional 13,000 units of affordable housing over the next five years, the PBO report said.

However, affordability is expected to be undercut by cuts to programs that provide support to low-income families, such as the Canada Housing Benefit, the report added.