Ottawa — The Government of Canada is adopting new and innovative ways to build high-quality housing, in line with our work to make infrastructure climate resilient, and boost Canada’s housing supply at an unprecedented rate. Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, announced consultations that will begin in early January 2024 on a housing design catalogue initiative, building on the work already being done to address the challenges facing the housing sector.
This new initiative will help accelerate the delivery of homes by standardizing housing designs, starting with low-rise construction. It will explore a potential catalogue to support higher density construction, such as mid-rise buildings, and different forms of housing construction, such as modular and prefabricated homes. The government will also look at ways to support municipalities, provinces and territories looking to implement their own housing design catalogues.
Through these consultations, the government will engage with partners and stakeholders across the housing sector to seek their input and expertise.
The Government of Canada is changing the way we build homes and using all levers at its disposal to build more homes, faster. By working together with various orders of government, private and non-profit sectors, partners, and experts, we can make housing more affordable and more attainable for all Canadians.
“In order to build more homes faster, we need to change how we build homes in Canada. We are going to take the idea of a housing catalogue which we used the last time Canada faced a housing crisis, and bring it into the 21st century. This is going to help accelerate future developments, and tap into new and innovative construction methods that will make a real difference in building communities across Canada.” – Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities