OTTAWA — The federal housing minister’s office is reasserting Ottawa’s goal of doubling the pace of home construction — even though references to the Liberals’ hallmark affordability pledge were missing from Budget 2026.
Mike Moffatt, founding director of the Missing Middle Institute, said he always viewed the Liberals’ goal of doubling home building levels as a tough one to achieve. It would mean bringing the annual number of housing starts up to 500,000 in a given year, when Canada has so far topped out around 300,000.
Housing has been too expensive since before the pandemic. We’re building something like 240k annually, and now the Liberals are talking about bringing foreign investors back into the mix.
It’s a shit show.
But it wins votes. “Fix the housing crisis” worked for Harper in 2006, even.