Feds to build homes on federal land in Ottawa as part of ‘Build Canada Homes’ initiative

Factory-built homes will be constructed on federal lands in Ottawa as part of the federal government’s new “Build Canada Homes” initiative.

Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled the $13 billion agency to speed up affordable home building in Ottawa on Sunday. As part of the plan, 4,000 homes will be built on six federally owned sites in Ottawa, Dartmouth, N.S. Longueuil, Que., Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

“In short, Build Canada Homes will help us build faster, smarter and more sustainably,” Carney said.

Carney made the announcement while touring a new modular home being built in Ottawa by Caivan Homes.

The specific federal locations for the homes were not announced on Sunday.

“We know that land is one of the greatest barriers to unlocking public land, which the federal government has done through the Land Bank, but with which the city is also doing, will help accelerate that deeply affordable housing,” Coun. Laine Johnson said.

The federal government says it will deploy a “direct-build approach” to building housing at the six federal sites, “overseeing and leading construction projects focused on affordable mixed-income communities.

Under the Build Canada Homes initiative, the government says it will build “deeply affordable and community housing for low-income households.”

The Ottawa Home Builders Association says the test will be in the delivery.

“If they produce a thousand a year, which I think would be extraordinary, that goes a long way to getting more housing… especially locally in Ottawa that people need,” Jason Burggraaf, executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association, told CTV News Ottawa.

“So, it is, really, can the government turn around those types of units? That will be the real goal here or certainly should be the goal.”

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe attended the announcement by Carney on Sunday.

“I’m very glad to see Ottawa on the list of the first few communities where this new agency will get to work,” Sutcliffe said of the “Build Canada Homes” initiative.

The federal government says the Canada Lands Company will be transferred under the Build Canada Homes portfolio, giving it access to the 88 federal proprieties listed as suitable for housing on the Canada Public Land Bank.

Thirty-six of the federal proprieties listed as suitable for housing are in Ottawa, including five properties at Tunney’s Pasture, the Jackson Building on Bank Street, L’Esplanade Laurier, the former CBC building on Bronson Avenue, the former CFB Rockcliffe site, and the “Ottawa South Corridor” north of West Hunt Club Road.

With files from The Canadian Press