The Senate resolved into a Committee of the Whole in order to study the subject matter of Bill C-26, An Act to authorize certain payments to be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purpose of improving housing supply.

Senator Cardozo: Thank you for being here, minister. I have a two-part question. Over the past four to five years, one of the reasons cited for the shortage of housing was immigration. Immigration levels have been reduced considerably in the last couple of years. I wonder what your thoughts are on the link between immigration and the shortage of homes and your thoughts about whether Bill C-26 helps in this regard.

My second question is regarding Build Canada Homes. Do you have numbers on how many houses have been built, or when do you think you will have numbers firmly?

Mr. Robertson: Thank you, senator.

With immigration, the priority of our government is to make sure we have our immigration system under control and that the housing ecosystem across Canada has an opportunity to catch up a bit, given there were very high levels of immigration, particularly in 2022-23. It was one of the factors contributing to challenges with people finding adequate and affordable housing. There are many others. The direct purpose of Bill C-26 is to boost housing supply. Supply has been a challenge all along.

I would say, as the circumstances change, we’ve seen really good outcomes with the changes with immigration in getting the system under control. But Canada is a country of immigrants, and we are nearing a point where, I would say, we will start looking at the next steps with immigration. We need to ensure our housing decisions are informed by that.

To your second question, there are over 12,000 homes now in the works with Build Canada Homes. There has been a huge flow of proposals from across the country, with partners of all levels looking to have financing and investment in their projects — a very robust deal flow. Right now, there are about 12,000 already in the system, going for financing, and tens of thousands more coming. So those are good results right out of the gate in this first year.