Trudeau makes stop in Calgary for housing announcement

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Against the backdrop of a Calgary-area modular home factory, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to spend $600 million to fast-track the construction of homes.

Trudeau made the announcement in a city grappling with its own housing shortage magnified by a huge population influx.

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The new programs will include $500 million in low-cost loans to build homes with “innovative” techniques such as modular construction and another $50 million to kick start an innovative technology fund.

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Another $50 million is to be invested in expediting home building through regional agencies such as municipalities.

Trudeau said the moves, among others, are meant to instill hope among Canadians crushed by the cost of living.

“So many people have good jobs but mortgages are pushing them out of balance…Canadians are hurting right now and we need solutions around housing and affordability,” said Trudeau.

“It’ll help build more homes across the country that Canadians can get into quicker.”

“We want intend to accelerate the pace of housing construction to levels not seen since end of the Second World War.”

One of the solutions is to build homes more rapidly, said federal officials, particularly in indoor factories such as Calgary’s NRB Modular Solutions which Trudeau toured Friday.

“We can’t expect to do things the same way and expect different results,” said federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Community Sean Fraser, who pointed to hard-hatted construction workers at the Calgary plant.

“You folks will solve the national housing crisis.”

Indoor modular building, said Fraser, produces houses twice as fast as outdoor, conventional methods.

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Trudeau’s press secretary couldn’t give a number of the housing units the programs announced Friday would produce but said it was “in the thousands.”

That crisis is deepening in Alberta and across much of the county.

On Thursday the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said rental costs in Calgary are approaching Toronto levels.

That same agency said that while housing construction has increased slightly in Calgary, it’s not keeping pace with demand.

The increasingly pressing issue of housing’s skyrocketing cost and its plummeting availability have proven an enduring political achilles heel for Trudeau’s governing Liberals who’ve long trailed badly in opinion polls.

In recent days Trudeau’s made a flurry of announcements aiming to make the climate easier for both home buyers and renters.

On Thursday he unveiled a $1.5 billion housing fund to help non-profits to acquire more rental units and make them affordable.

The previous day, Trudeau announced his government would add $15 billion to an apartment construction loan program, bringing the initiative’s total cost to $55 billlion.

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And his government on Tuesday unveiled a $6-billion infrastructure fund to boost homebuilding and a $400 million addition to the housing accelerator fund.

But some provincial governments, including Alberta’s, have criticized the programs as federal intrusions into their jurisdiction.

Trudeau said if Alberta chooses not to participate in the programs, that’s up to the provincial government.

“If they don’t want to do more, then don’t take our money,” said the prime minister.

“It’s about finding solutions, it’s not about fighting.”

And the federal Conservatives have mocked the efforts as a feeble attempt to correct a situation made worse by the Liberal government’s fiscal and immigration policies.

So far this week, Trudeau’s announced housing incentives and programs worth about $25 billion but hasn’t said how it’ll be funded, but that there won’t be a middle class tax hike to cover it.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

X (Twitter) @BillKaufmannjrn

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