The NDP has proposed the Canadian Homes Transfer, an $8 million fund over four years to encourage cities to build more homes, faster. The NDP says this will help build more than 3 million homes by 2030. The party is also proposing another $8 million for the Communities First Fund which will support provinces in building infrastructure needed for growth.
The party is also strong on addressing development taxes. The NDP plan to freeze the increase on development charges and work with provinces to halve development charges that hold up construction. Provinces can also access the $8 billion Communities First Fund by freezing development charges and working with cities to cut them in half, lowering construction costs. CHBA encourages all parties to engage in conversations with provinces and municipalities to mandate that alternatives to development taxes be found so that development taxes are permanently lowered.
CHBA is also supportive of the NDP pledge to: require cities to allow more multi-unit homes in all neighbourhoods; speed up permits and approvals so homes can get built faster; commit to 20 percent non-market housing in every neighbourhood; and allow provinces to access money in a Communities First Fund by also ending exclusionary zoning that blocks new homes, supporting the construction of pre-fabricated homes to speed up building timelines, and requiring cities to allow at least four units on residential lots and more multi-unit homes. CHBA would stress, however, that committing to 20 percent non-market housing in neighbourhoods can’t be done via inclusionary zoning or other similar means that only make market-rate homes more expensive (as the subsidies for below-market rate housing have to come from somewhere, and unless there is a public source for that subsidy, it ends up in the cost of the market-rate housing, pushing up house prices).
CHBA does have concerns surrounding the so-called “financialization” of housing – or the “corporate takeover” of neighbourhoods – as the NDP position it in their platform. As CMHC has stated, corporate financing is an important part of funding to build the housing Canada needs, and Canada’s housing deficit cannot be made up by stifling investment. A comprehensive approach is needed and must work within Canada’s free-market system to leverage the private capital of Canadians and Canadian businesses to make the investments needed to build much more housing supply of all forms and tenure. Even international investors are needed, in a proper way, to support all the new construction required. The fact is that housing policy has made access to homeownership so difficult that it has necessitated investment by investors. Housing units are needed and wanted by Canadians, and now because they can’t access them for ownership, investors are important to fill the void to purchase them and rent them – though in the future, these renters are the very people who should be able to buy them. The entire housing continuum needs to be addressed, and we cannot fix our social/affordable housing needs without also fixing market-rate affordability.
Finally, the pledge to require Project Labour Agreements and Community Benefit Agreements does not help the home construction industry as the majority of the sector is non-unionized (so the labour agreement does not apply), and the community benefit agreement is a form of NIMBYism (that will only stifle development and further delay home building while adding to costs).
For more on CHBA’s recommendations on the federal role, see CHBA’s Unlocking the Door to Homeownership, as well as CHBA’s 2025 federal election platform tracker.