Ottawa – Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, joined by Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, and François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced new action, as part of Canada’s economic plan, to build more homes, faster, and strengthen competition to lower prices for Canadians.
To scale-up new homebuilding technologies and drive innovation in the housing sector, the government announced a $123 million investment through the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund, which will build more than 5,000 affordable homes. This investment will support eight innovative homebuilders to develop, test, and streamline the next generation of homebuilding techniques to build more homes, faster. New and innovative homebuilding practices will enable quicker, more cost-effective construction to build the next generation of homes.
The government also announced further action to strengthen competition and lower prices, especially of groceries, for Canadians. First, the government is launching a new call for projects through the Contributions Program for Non-profit Consumer and Voluntary Organizations that will help Canadians find more affordable, healthy grocery options. Second, to prevent anti-competitive mergers, the government is freezing the transaction-size threshold for the advance notification of mergers under the Competition Act for 2024 at $93 million. Freezing the threshold means a greater share of potential merger transactions will be automatically reviewed by the Commissioner of the Competition Bureau.
Today’s announcements reflect the latest initiatives in the federal government’s economic plan to build more homes, faster, and make life more affordable. The government is using every possible tool to unlock more homes and to strengthen competition to lower prices for Canadians.
“Every week, our government is taking new action to build more homes, faster, and make housing more affordable for Canadians. This week, our economic plan is unlocking more affordable homes and creating new pathways to homeownership for Canadians. Today’s investment through the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund will enable innovative homebuilders to scale-up their revolutionary techniques and build more than 5,000 new homes, faster. And we are aggressively strengthening competition, particularly in the grocery sector, to lower prices for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.” – Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance