Tuesday’s federal budget talks about “generational investments” and “supercharging housing construction.” But there just isn’t the right scale in its measures and investments to seriously tackle Canada’s housing affordability crisis. The budget increases investments in growing the supply of houses to $5.8 billion, up from $4 billion in 2023-4. 
Even if that was all poured into non-profit or co-operative housing, it would only produce several tens of thousands of new units. The best estimate of need, from Dr. Carolyn Whitzman, is for 200,000 units a year of housing at rents below $1,050 (2021 dollars).
Most of the housing measures were announced in advance, and the budget, like the earlier announcements, has very little detail. There aren’t, for instance, any targets, other than an overall goal to double annual construction of all types of housing.
The largest portion of the $5.8 billion investment, $1.8 billion, is for Indigenous housing, where the need is certainly great. The Affordable Housing Fund gets almost $1.2 billion and the Apartment Construction Loan Program gets $417 million. Neither fund has been well-focused on those in core housing need. The Housing Accelerator Fund gets just over $1 billion. It can be used for non-profit housing but is aimed primarily at increasing the general supply of homes, both for-profit and non-profit.
Despite funding that is far too small, three aspects of the budget’s housing measures make sense: the fact that the government’s new housing agency, Build Canada Homes, will focus on non-profit housing; the continuation of the Co-op Housing Development Fund; and the launch of the $1.5 billion (over five years) Canada Rental Protection Fund. Earlier this year, the co-op fund allocated $423 million to eight projects with 837 units—which works out to a cost of about a half million dollars per unit. The rental protection fund will allow not-for-profit organizations to buy existing for-profit buildings that still have affordable units, to preserve their affordability forever.