GUEST SUBMISSION: With a federal election in full swing, and a new “tariff-gate” popping up seemingly every other week, focus on the Canadian housing crisis has unfortunately waned.

Regardless, no matter where the Canadian economy ends up through the trade war, housing will be an essential component of a strong economic strategy. Policy makers will earn great benefit from finding ways to incentivize building with Canadian inputs. “Made in Canada” should also apply to real estate.

The vast majority of Canadian housing stock is built by the private sector. We have the expertise, talent and track record; we know how to build very well.

Despite attention from policy makers across the country, many outdated processes and regulations at the municipal level continue to impede the private sector from reaching its full potential. Nevertheless, we are seeing progressive new approaches and initiatives in different jurisdictions that we can take inspiration and learn from (some of which was undoubtedly spurred on by the national Housing Accelerator Fund).  

Here are notable new policies and action plans that started to take shape over the last two years and are having strong and positive impacts on the industry across the country.

Transit-oriented developments, flexible land use and zoning policies

While transit-oriented development policies are not a new concept, especially for cities like Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa have both recently established new incentive programs for developers to encourage higher-density, multi-unit housing developments near transit stations. 

Vancouver also rolled out historic zoning changes in residential neighbourhoods that would allow townhouses, laneway houses and secondary suites to be built on residential properties previously zoned exclusively for single-family homes.

This makes it much easier for developers to create new housing in established neighborhoods without complex rezoning procedures. Another welcomed move from the City of Vancouver was the elimination of minimum parking requirements for all land uses.

In Atlantic Canada, new policies to encourage multi-unit housing development also have gained momentum. In Halifax for example, to increase housing in new residential buildings, the city removed unit mix requirements such as percentage ground-floor retail requirements, and eliminated on-site parking requirements.

Yes, eliminating parking requirements is something I do love and makes a big difference for a project’s feasibility.

In Toronto, the latest excitement has been about the city’s adoption of the Major Streets Plan, which would allow multi-unit residential housing up to six storeys along transit-accessible streets in various neighbourhoods across the city. The industry is eagerly waiting to see what happens with the current appeal.

Think of how nice a consistent gentle density similar to what we see across neighbourhoods and main streets in London, Paris and New York would be for Toronto. It would be game-changing for the city landscape of Canada’s largest city and would speed up the development of much-needed missing middle rental housing across many neighbourhoods.

Office conversions and modular construction

Converting office buildings into residential buildings is neither an easy nor cost-efficient endeavour to take on. However, it's often discussed as something we should consider more, as our major cities are still struggling with high office vacancy rates on highly accessible transit lines.

We can take lessons from Calgary on this front. 

Calgary has been struggling with office vacancy for more than a decade, which was then exacerbated by COVID. Now the city is offering a very straightforward financial incentive to developers who convert office space to residential.

This office conversion incentive program is in concert with relaxed parking requirements, increased floor area ratios and changes to zoning laws. Two conversions have been completed under this program, and about a dozen are in the pipeline.

It's something we will be watching closely.

Modular housing construction systems will be critical to unlocking more mid-rise housing development faster, especially as we face ongoing construction labour and cost challenges. In Ontario, we're starting to see more innovative new models for construction from the private sector.

Modular building systems significantly reduce construction times by integrating design, manufacturing and installation processes off-site.

First National provided the construction financing for a five-storey, 50-unit apartment building in Niagara Falls by Livwell Development that used a new and notable modular precast construction system called Fast Track by Stubbe’s. Less than one year from breaking ground, this purpose-built rental was completed six months ahead of schedule.

Extremely pleased with its success, Livwell now has a 123-unit apartment under construction using the Fast Track system.

I hope and expect to see continued growth in the modular manufacturing space in coming years. Modular housing offers a viable solution to Canada’s housing needs by drastically reducing construction timelines (development periods cut by 60 per cent or more!), and offering a more efficient and sustainable construction method with manufacturing occurring inside (out of the elements) in a more controlled environment.

Another shoutout goes to Calgary on this front, where the city has taken a progressive approach with a Modular Housing Incentive Program that provides financial support to developers who utilize modular construction methods.

Shifting to a “how can I help” mindset 

Finally, in Edmonton, where development approvals are notably fast - one-fifth of the time of it takes in Toronto - the city continues to try new things to push housing forward faster.

It implemented an e-permitting system where developers can easily submit permits applications online, track progress and receive approvals.

In the past two years, it also overhauled a long-time exclusionary zoning bylaw and replaced it with a city-wide zoning bylaw to allow up to eight units on any residential property, including three-storey apartment buildings, townhouses, rowhouses or multiplexes.  This zoning bylaw for residential lots goes beyond what any other city in the country has done to date. 

In a recent podcast conversation I had with Marlon Bray, executive vice-president of Clarke Construction Management, he talks about a lot about these examples and sums it up well. In Edmonton the mentality is “How do I help you get to the end? Let’s get it built together, let’s work together and get it built to the end.”  

With the current sentiment shift on Canadian patriotism and building a stronger economy, there is no better time to rethink and retool how we do things and how we can work better together to build more housing faster.

Let’s seize this “Made in Canada” moment as an opportunity to break down our own internal barriers to housing development. We all need to work better together if we are serious about building more housing faster.