Making performance a hallmark of Build Canada Homes

The Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) sees sustainable housing as a critical driver of long-term affordability, occupant health, and climate resilience for Canadian communities. Our backgrounder, Building Better Value: How Build Canada Homes Can Drive Long-Term Housing Performance details how federal government programs can advance better housing for Canadians.

Building high-quality homes that last

As the federal government launches Build Canada Homes — backed by an initial $13 billion investment to double the pace of homebuilding — Canada faces a critical opportunity. Delivering new housing supply is essential, but true affordability does not end with a mortgage or rental payment. It is determined by monthly energy bills, maintenance costs, and durability over decades.

Green building is a vehicle for progress across housing, finance, and long-term economic stability. By deploying performance-linked financing, Build Canada Homes can ensure public capital builds higher-quality homes that cost less to operate, protect public health, and safeguard public investments.

---

CAGBC’s recommendations for Build Canada Homes

Here are four practical actions Build Canada Homes can integrate into its financing framework without creating administrative burden:

1. Plan Better: Provide forgivable contributions or low-interest financing for energy modelling, climate risk analysis, commissioning and other pre-development studies.
2. Build Better: Create financing that covers the incremental cost of high-performance envelopes, heat pumps, geothermal, district energy, and similar measures through recyclable financing rather than one-time grants.
3. Verify Performance: Establish a common post-occupancy verification framework using energy reporting, utility data, and standardized benchmarking.
4. Reward Performance: Develop an energy performance-backed financing product that uses verified outcomes to inform underwriting, improve financing terms, and enable federal funds to be reinvested in additional housing projects.

Building Better Value: A CAGBC Policy Brief

An executive summary of key policy recommendations outlining how Build Canada Homes can support long-term housing performance, improve affordability, strengthen climate resilience, and deliver greater value for Canadians.

Coming soon: Housing Financing Framework Report

Developed in collaboration with Urban Equation, this technical report will provide deeper financial analysis that expands on CAGBC’s policy recommendations. Through an in-depth analysis of federal, provincial, and municipal housing intervention programs, it outlines how public investments can be structured to support affordability, resilience, and long-term building performance.

Looking for more on housing?

Check out our report: Two Million Green Homes: Ensuring Canada’s Needed New Housing is Affordable, Attainable, and Sustainable

---