Canada Growing Communities And Building More Homes, Faster

(MENAFN- Caribbean News Global) NOVA SCOTIA, Canada – Everyone deserves to succeed. But today, for too many Canadians, especially Millennials and Gen Z, your hard work isn't paying off like it did for previous generations. Your paycheque doesn't go as far as costs go up, and saving enough seems harder and harder. It doesn't have to be this way. Every generation should get a fair chance to get ahead.

One of the biggest pressures on young people right now is housing. Faced with a shortage of housing options and increasingly high rent and home prices, it feels like the deck is stacked against them. But it doesn't have to be – with a Team Canada effort, we can change that. We need to bring home prices back within reach by increasing housing supply right across the board – and quickly. We've already taken bold action to build more homes, faster, improve access to housing, and make homes more affordable – and we know there is more to be done. That means cutting red tape to fast-track construction, but also building the infrastructure to support more homes in vibrant, liveable, and growing communities.

Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, on Monday announced key measures from the upcoming Budget 2024 to cut red tape, build more homes, and help communities grow.

These measures include:

• Topping-up the Housing Accelerator Fund with an additional $400 million , so more municipalities can cut red tape, fast-track home construction, and invest in affordable housing. Since launching the now $4.4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund last year, the federal government has signed 179 agreements across the country to fast-track more than 750,000 homes over the next decade. Today's $400 million top-up will fast-track an additional 12,000 new homes in the next three years.
• Launching a new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to accelerate the construction and upgrading of critical housing infrastructure. This includes water, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste infrastructure to support the construction of more homes. This fund will include:
  • $1 billion available for municipalities to support urgent infrastructure needs that will directly create more housing.
  • $5 billion for agreements with provinces and territories to support long-term priorities. Provinces and territories can only access this funding if they commit to key actions that increase housing supply:
    • Require municipalities to broadly adopt four units as-of-right and allow more“missing middle” homes, including duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and other multi-unit apartments.
    • Implement a three-year freeze on increasing development charges from April 2, 2024, levels for municipalities with a population greater than 300,000.
    • Adopt forthcoming changes to the National Building Code to support more accessible, affordable, and climate-friendly housing options.
    • Require as-of-right construction for the government's upcoming Housing Design Catalogue.
    • Implement measures from the Home Buyers' Bill of Rights and Renters' Bill of Rights.
  • Provinces will have until January 1, 2025, to secure an agreement, and territories will have until April 1, 2025. If a province or territory does not secure an agreement by their respective deadline, their funding allocation will be transferred to the municipal stream. The federal government will work with territorial governments to ensure the actions in their agreements are suitable to their distinct needs.
• Announcing that, to access long-term, predictable funding for public transit through the federal government's forthcoming public transit fund, municipalities will be required to take action that will directly unlock housing supply . This includes measures to:
  • Eliminate all mandatory minimum parking requirements within 800 metres of a high-frequency transit line.
  • Allow high-density housing within 800 metres of a high-frequency transit line.
  • Allow high-density housing within 800 metres of post-secondary institutions.
  • Complete a Housing Needs Assessment for all communities with a population greater than 30,000.

This is about making homes more affordable by increasing supply and making the housing market fairer – for renters, for homeowners, and for Canadians trying to find a place of their own. Growing communities need quality infrastructure in order to build more homes, faster – and we are there to support them with these generational investments.

We are working with provinces, territories, and municipalities to remove barriers to home building, including by allowing multiplexes as-of-right, encouraging affordable rentals, speeding up permitting and approvals processes, and building affordable homes near public transit stations, especially for students, seniors, and young families. We're not just building homes, faster – we're building communities from the ground up.

No single player can fill Canada's housing shortage on its own. More must be done and all of Team Canada – the federal government, provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, cities and towns, the private sector, labour, and non-profits – must work together to ensure everyone has an affordable place to call home.

Alongside today's action to build more homes, we're protecting renters, delivering stronger public health care, making life more affordable, and creating good jobs, to make sure every generation can get ahead. We will be announcing further action to do this, and especially to build more homes, faster – to ensure no generation is left behind.

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