Provinces 'hold the key' to building more homes, new report argues

National Observer

5 days ago

While the federal government and cities across Canada are making strides on expanding the housing supply, the provinces still need to get serious about building quality homes, a new report released Thursday argues.
No province earned a grade higher than C+ in the report assembled by the Task Force for Housing and Climate, a non-governmental body that was struck in 2023 with backing from the philanthropic Clean Economy Fund.
The task force's "report card" evaluated governments based on their policies for building homes quickly and sustainably.
It gave the federal government the highest grade in the country — a B — while Alberta ranked at the bottom of the pile with a D+. The rest of the provinces' scores were in the C range.
Mike Moffatt, the report's author and founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative at the University of Ottawa, suggested that the provinces have thus far avoided "scrutiny" for their role in perpetuating the housing crisis, while Ottawa and the cities have taken the heat for red tape and high costs.
"Provinces really hold the key here. They have the most policy levers and, in many cases, they've actually done the least," he said.
The task force is co-chaired by former Edmonton mayor Don Iveson and former deputy leader of the federal Conservatives Lisa Raitt. Prime Minister Mark Carney was one of the group's members before becoming federal Liberal leader.
'Currently, no government is doing enough to get these homes built," said Raitt in a statement accompanying the report.
The task force compiled its report card based on its evaluations of government policies to encourage factory-built housing, fill in market gaps, boost density, map high-risk areas and update building codes.
The report found plenty of variability even within provinces, said He said both Saskatchewan and Ontario are doing well on building away from high-risk areas but are falling short on increasing density.
The report gave British Columbia, Quebec and Prince Edward Island a score of C+ — the highest score received by any province.
Moffat said BC's grade suffered because while it encourages density "on paper," its slow permit approvals and high building costs frustrate development.
While Alberta is doing well on the pace of housing starts alone, he said, that's mostly due to leadership at the municipal level in Calgary and Edmonton — not provincial policy.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in the provincial legislature in November that the government was "not standing in the way of the private sector to build more affordable housing." She said increasing housing supply would "automatically" bring down costs for Albertans.
Moffatt said Smith's stance is "correct" — lowering barriers to development is critical to expanding the supply of affordable housing — but that's "only part of the story."
He said Alberta has to take "responsibility" for the housing demand it induces through its successful marketing campaign to lure Ontarians to the province.
Moffatt said the province also has to make sure homes are built sustainably and not in the path of wildfires, and can't abdicate its responsibility for filling gaps in social housing.
"We need both. We need a strong, robust private sector to deliver housing, but we also need government to come in and fill in the gaps," he said.
Moffatt said the provinces are falling behind on mapping flood plains and need to take responsibility for provincial legislation that leads to higher development charges.
He noted that the report card was based only on implemented policies and did not capture the impact of proposed legislation such as Ontario's Bill 17, which is meant to speed up permits and approvals, simplify development charges and fast-track infrastructure projects.
The report said the federal government's housing accelerator fund, which encourages municipalities to simplify zoning rules to get more shovels in the ground, has made progress but needs enforcement tools to keep cities accountable after they strike funding deals with Ottawa.
Moffatt said he hopes to use the report card framework to track progress on housing goals in the future, and to work on separate research to evaluate municipalities' housing policies.