Ottawa, September 15, 2025 — The Europe Today: Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday announced the creation of Build Canada Homes, a new federal agency designed to oversee national housing programs and accelerate construction across the country.
The initiative fulfills a key Liberal election pledge to double housing construction. Carney described the new body as a centralized agency that will “supercharge housing construction across Canada,” emphasizing its role in building supportive and transitional housing in collaboration with provinces, territories, and Indigenous communities. The agency will also expand deeply affordable and community housing while working with private developers to deliver homes for the middle class.
Former Toronto city councillor Ana Bailão has been appointed as the agency’s first Chief Executive Officer. Build Canada Homes will be empowered to approve construction on public lands and allocate funding during the early stages of housing development.
According to the prime minister, the government has earmarked $13 billion for the agency. The funding will initially support the construction of 4,000 modular homes at six sites nationwide — Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Longueuil (Quebec), and Dartmouth (Nova Scotia) — with capacity to scale up to 45,000 homes. Construction is expected to begin next year.
The announcement comes amid mounting concerns about affordability in Canada’s largest housing markets. A recent report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) noted that housing starts were near record highs nationwide during the first half of 2025, particularly in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, and Halifax, where rental apartment construction has been strong.
However, the report warned of sharp declines in Toronto and Vancouver. Toronto is on pace for its lowest annual housing starts in three decades, with new condominium construction plunging 60 per cent in the first half of the year. CMHC projects that for at least two more years, housing starts in Toronto will remain far below the levels needed to restore affordability.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has criticized the government’s approach, dismissing the new agency as an additional layer of bureaucracy. Instead, he has called for tying infrastructure funding to municipal homebuilding targets, eliminating the capital gains tax on reinvested homebuilding profits, and removing the federal sales tax on homes priced under $1.3 million.
CMHC projects that Canada’s housing starts must nearly double by 2035 — reaching 480,000 units annually — in order to meet the country’s growing demand.
