Bill C-356, also known as the Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act, proposes to set a target for the completion of new homes in 'high-cost cities,' provided municipalities increase home building by 15 per cent every year.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Update: On May 29, Mr. Poilievre's bill was defeated in the House of Commons with the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois voting against the legislation. Read more here.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says recent municipal decisions in Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg are slowing down the construction of new homes, and that his own housing bill will reverse that trend.
Bill C-356, also known as the Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act, is set to be put to a Commons vote on Wednesday. It proposes to set a target for the completion of new homes in “high-cost cities,” provided municipalities increase home building by 15 per cent every year. Federal infrastructure funding would be tied to that target, including both rewards and penalties for performance.
In his speech at the bill’s second reading Monday, Mr. Poilievre criticized cities that have increased development charges since receiving funds from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund. Ottawa City Council, for instance, approved a set of development charges increases that will add up to $6,200 to the cost of building a single-family home.
Mr. Poilievre said the current Liberal plan gives money to cities that put up barriers to additional housing construction, and that he hopes to curb such behaviour with his bill, though it lacks support from the other parties.
“When you pay for bureaucratic box-ticking, you get bureaucratic box-ticking, but you can’t live in a box ticked by a bureaucrat. You have to live in a home, and that’s why my plan pays for results,” he said.
Mr. Poilievre also pointed to a judgment that found the City of Winnipeg staff liable for slowing the development of a 1,900-unit residential development next to a rapid transit station.
Housing policy has emerged as a major political battleground in the run-up to the next federal election, which is scheduled to take place by fall 2025. Mr. Poilievre has made cost-of-living concerns – and the high cost of housing in particular – a central focus since he became Conservative Leader in September, 2022.
Bill C-356 proposes the reallocation of $100-million from the Housing Accelerator Fund to municipalities that greatly exceed housing targets. It would require that federal transit funding provided to certain cities be held in a trust until high-density residential housing is substantially occupied on available land around federally funded transit projects’ stations. Certain cities would also be required to not unduly restrict or delay the approval of building permits in order to receive federal infrastructure and transit funding.
Scott Pearce, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said in a statement that it is monitoring the bill as it moves through the legislative process. He also pointed to other factors that dictate outcomes on housing that are outside of the control of cities.
“Municipalities have a role to play, but there are other critical factors affecting the construction and completion of new homes, including external forces such as material costs, labour, and interest rates,” Mr. Pearce said.
The Liberal government’s April, 2024, budget featured a heavy focus on housing, including $19-billion in new housing and affordability measures. The Liberal government also announced a $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund in the 2022 budget that aimed to tie federal funding to municipal policies to increase housing approvals. The program shares similarities with Mr. Poilievre’s approach in that it involves federal incentives that are contingent on municipal action.
Because of these recent announcements from the Liberal government, Carolyn Whitzman, a housing policy researcher and adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa, said Mr. Poilievre’s bill has been “overtaken by events” since it was first introduced in the House in September.
“The current federal government is doing conditional infrastructure funding, which is what that bill was about. It’s taking a bit more of a carrot approach rather than the stick approach suggested by the private members’ bill, but it’s the same principle,” she said.
During debate on Bill C-356 on Monday, none of the other parties voiced support.
Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos, who is parliamentary secretary to Housing Minister Sean Fraser, said the government’s accelerator fund is an effective tool to encourage zoning reform. He said Conservatives criticize municipal leaders as “gatekeepers” even though co-operation between governments is required.
Bloc Québécois MP Sylvie Bérubé said the bill puts too much blame for the housing crisis on municipalities instead of the federal government.