Canada wants to tap into mass timber and other modern construction methods to more than double the speed of housing under construction, according to Mark Carney, the country’s newly elected Prime Minister, who spoke about his plans for housing just two weeks before the federal election.

A key plank of the plan – launched March 31 – includes the creation of a new entity, “Build Canada Homes” that will “get the federal government back into the business of building affordable homes at scale, including on public lands,” Carney said, adding that more than $25 billion in financing will be opened to prefabricated home builders – allowing for factories to scale up production to create demand.

“Build Canada Homes will catalyse an entirely new housing industry, with Canadian lumber at the centre of it. The way we build homes needs to change. Prefabricated and modular housing are the future. They can drive down time to completion by up to 50 per cent, reduce costs by up to 20 per cent, and reduce emissions by over 20 per cent compared to traditional construction methods, and Canada should be the world leader in this new industry. And as you can see here, we are already well positioned to do so.”

Carney said that Canada’s softwood lumber industry—which has been subject to on-again, off-again Trump tariffs—and mass timber technologies like those used at Intelligent City are central to plans to build almost 500,000 new homes every year: “We want to address failures in the housing market head-on, unleashing the power of public-private co-operation at a scale not seen in generations.”

Carney, joined by Delta MP hopeful Jill McKnight and other Lower Mainland candidates, held the press conference at Intelligent City in Tilbury. The company uses mass timber products and robotics technology to make prefabricated carbon-neutral housing.

Canada’s new leader—who yesterday secured a fourth term for the Liberals—tied the “announcement” to the United States plan to more than double tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, saying our country’s forest resources can instead be used to build affordable homes here, create higher-paying jobs, and strengthen Canada’s economy.

“While the U.S. is trying to keep high-quality, sustainable Canadian lumber out, we will use more of it here in our plan to double the pace of housing construction in this country over the next 10 years” Carney said. “This is the most ambitious housing plan since the Second World War – we will build our way out of the housing crisis – we will build our way out of the economic crisis – (and) we will make housing more affordable in Canada once again.”

What Canada’s election means for housing policy

According to real estate platform CoStar, the election of a former chair of property investor Brookfield Asset Management and one-time head of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, could lead to changes in housing policy as the country faces affordability and supply challenges.

Carney and the Liberals won Monday’s battle with the Conservatives, their leader Pierre Poilievre, and two smaller parties, but Carney failed to capture a majority of the seats in Parliament. That could leave some of his proposed policies in limbo, including a plan he said would add 500,000 new homes a year to make residential property more affordable.

“Canada is more than a nation. We are, and we always will be, a confederation, a sacred set of ideas and ideals based on practical foundations,” said Carney in a victory speech. 

The election left him with 168 of the 343 seats in the House of Commons and once again dependent on the left-wing New Democrat Party to pass legislation. The Liberal platform included several proposals that would affect real estate, including dropping the goods and services tax, or GST, on homes under $1 million for first-time purchasers and providing over $25 billion, mainly in debt financing, as a contractor for the construction of affordable housing, according to a CIBC report.

Read More.