Federal ministers announce efforts to build houses faster, protect consumers

Federal ministers announced a number of initiatives Thursday they say will get homes built faster and improve competition and affordability across the economy.

They include funding to research new ways to build homes, maintaining the transaction size threshold for mergers and issuing a call for research proposals that «will strengthen affordability and improve price transparency.»

Housing Minister Sean Fraser said that $123 million in federal funding — money previously announced — has been used to strike deals with eight home builders across the country.

A government statement said the funding will be used to «develop, test, and streamline the next generation of home building techniques to build more homes, faster.»

The $123 million is coming from the Liberal government's Affordable Housing Innovation Fund, which was set up in 2016 with a budget of $208.3 million over six years. In 2022/23, the Liberals topped up the fund with $550.8 million to be allocated over an additional six years.

«The Affordable Housing Innovation Funding is supporting innovative solutions developed by eight different organizations across Canada, which is expected to help get 5,000 new affordable homes built,» Fraser said in a media statement.

Fraser's office declined to provide details on how the 5,000 homes figure was calculated, or how the research money will be used to help build them. It said those details would be released soon.

Mergers and consumer research

Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne, meanwhile, announced that his department has issued a call for proposals «for projects to protect and empower Canadian consumers.»

Champagne's department is looking to fund projects that will help Canadians with grocery