OTTAWA — The parliamentary budget office projects Ottawa’s new housing agency will fill only a small gap in the housing market.
The Liberals launched Build Canada Homes in September and tasked the new federal agency with boosting the total stock of affordable housing with $13 billion in funding for loans, financing and land acquisition.
But the fiscal watchdog also warns in a new report that overall federal housing spending is set to decline by 56 per cent over the next three years, as new funding for Build Canada Homes only partially offsets other programs that are set to expire or haven’t been publicly renewed yet.
The budget office says Build Canada Homes is projected to add 26,000 units to the total housing supply across the country over the next five years, half of which would be affordable homes for low-income Canadians.
That represents a boost of 2.1 per cent to the office’s baseline projection for housing supply growth over the same period — just a fraction of the number of new homes needed to restore affordability.
The Liberals have promised to double the pace of housing construction, but the budget office notes the government hasn’t released a complete plan to achieve that goal.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2025.
Craig Lord, The Canadian Press
