Special to Ontario Construction News
While the federal government and municipalities are making headway in addressing Canada’s housing crisis, provinces are lagging behind on key reforms needed to build affordable, sustainable homes, a new report shows.
A report card released by the Task Force for Housing and Climate gives Ottawa a B grade — the highest in the country — for providing incentives to accelerate apartment construction. But no province earned higher than a C+, and Alberta ranked at the bottom with a D+.
The non-governmental task force, launched in 2023 with support from the Clean Economy Fund, assessed federal and provincial governments against 140 policy recommendations to meet a national goal of building 5.8 million new homes by 2030 that are affordable, low-carbon and resilient to climate impacts.
“Currently, no government is doing enough to get these homes built,” said Lisa Raitt, the task force’s co-chair and former deputy leader of the federal Conservatives. “Canada needs more homes, and they must be homes that meet the needs of today — affordable, climate-aligned and resilient to floods, wildfires and extreme heat.”
The report graded governments on five criteria: legalizing housing density, modernizing building codes, accelerating factory-built construction, avoiding development in high-risk areas, and filling market gaps through affordable housing subsidies.
Mike Moffatt, the report’s author and founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative at the University of Ottawa, said provincial governments control many of the key levers but have failed to act with urgency.
“Provinces really hold the key here. They have the most policy levers and, in many cases, they’ve actually done the least,” Moffatt said. “Too often, provincial reforms are accompanied by poison pills — like height limits, high taxes and slow approval times — that render them ineffective.”
The result, he said, has been a sharp drop in housing starts. In the first quarter of 2025, construction was down more than 30 per cent year-over-year in both Ontario and British Columbia.
The report found uneven progress across provinces:
- British Columbia, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island earned C+ grades — the highest among provinces — though each faced challenges. B.C. was praised for legalizing single-egress apartments but lost marks due to high fees and lengthy permit delays. Quebec scored well for keeping construction out of flood zones but underperformed in areas like building codes and zoning for density.
- Ontario, graded a C, made gains in steering housing away from high-risk areas but received low scores for its failure to expand affordable housing and rein in development charges. The report noted its proposed Bill 17 — which aims to speed up permitting and reduce red tape — was not considered, as the report only evaluated implemented policies.
- Alberta received a D+ for falling short in nearly every category, despite high housing starts in cities like Calgary and Edmonton, which the report attributed to municipal rather than provincial leadership. The province was criticized for weak building standards, lack of support for factory-built homes, and failing to regulate development in flood-prone areas.
Premier Danielle Smith told the Canadian Press her government’s approach, saying in the legislature last year that Alberta is “not standing in the way” of private-sector housing and that supply increases will “automatically” lower prices. Moffatt said while reducing barriers is important, the province must also take responsibility for the demand it fuels through marketing campaigns and ensure housing is climate-resilient.
“We need both,” he said. “We need a strong, robust private sector to deliver housing, but we also need governments to fill in the gaps.”
The report also found the federal government’s housing accelerator fund has made progress in pushing municipalities to cut zoning restrictions but lacks the enforcement tools to hold cities accountable after funding agreements are signed.
The task force plans to use the report card framework to track progress in the coming years and may also evaluate municipal housing policy in future research.
