A look at the new Canada’s Housing Plan

Today, the federal government released Canada’s Housing Plan.

CAGBC agrees with the statement: “Buildings that are energy efficient and climate resilient can help reduce the lifetime cost of maintaining a home by lowering utility bills and insurance costs.” Energy-efficient housing will benefit Canadians for decades to come.

The Plan also contains a few investments that will have a positive impact on the green building sector. They include:

$800 million for a Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program and $100 million to “renew and improve existing energy efficiency programs that offer tools to building owners” and assist in the “development of better building codes,” and for the government to continue “developing national approaches to home energy labelling.”

$50 million for the Homebuilding Technology and Innovation Fund to “help scale up, commercialize, and promote the adoption of innovative housing technologies and materials in Canada’s homebuilding industry, including modular and prefabricated homes.”

Investing in modular and prefabricated construction techniques for homes has significant potential to reduce embodied carbon (emissions from materials and construction processes).

The Plan also calls for the introduction of a temporary accelerated capital cost allowance tax measure that will be proposed in Budget 2024. Increasing the capital cost allowance rate from 4% to 10% will incentivize builders to get more projects moving by increasing their after-tax return on investments.

Eligible new purpose-built rental projects would be those beginning construction on or after April 16, 2024, and before January 1, 2031, and that are available for use before January 1, 2036.

The proposed Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance for eligible purpose-built rental could accelerate residential projects at the scale needed. However, it must be connected to requirements to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency to ensure projects are future-proof and affordable in the long-term.

There are other programs proposed in the Plan that CAGBC team will review over the coming days.

With Budget 2024 next week and the pending release of the Canada Green Buildings Strategy and other policies, the federal government has the capacity to normalize buildings that deliver low energy costs, reduce insurance costs and lower carbon emissions.