Canadians want the government to cut immigration to ease the housing crisis across the country, according to new focus group data.
“Asked whether they thought Canada was currently experiencing a housing crisis, all believed this to be the case,” said a Privy Council report, called Continuous Qualitative Data Collection of Canadians’ Views. The report was released on March 26, with data collected in October 2023, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
The research by the Privy Council Office found support for lowering immigration quotes to “alleviate demand for housing.”
Focus groups identified a range of housing challenges the government needs to tackle, the report said.
“Asked to identify the most significant challenges related to housing that needed to be addressed by the federal government, participants put forward a range of responses,” it said. “These included building more homes, providing greater assistance to first time homebuyers, lowering interest rates, temporarily reducing the rate of immigration as a way to alleviate demand for housing, and banning real estate speculation.”
The data was collected from focus group participants who filled in questionnaires. Research was done by The Strategic Council.
Canada welcomed 607,782 non-permanent residents in 2022 and 437,180 immigrants.
Ottawa decided to increase the number of permanent residents to 500,000 in 2025, which is nearly double the number from 2015.
Housing Minister Sean Fraser and Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in a joint statement on Jan. 12 that the government would aim to stabilize immigration.
Housing Starts
Researchers also polled the public to determine support for withholding government subsidies from municipalities that did not increase building permits by 15 percent a year. Participants had a mixed reaction, the report said. The policy was put forward by Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.“While some believed there needed to be accountability for municipalities that did not prioritize addressing the housing needs of their residents, a similar number felt differently,” report authors said. “Among these participants it was felt that each municipality was dealing with its own unique challenges related to housing and that an increase in the housing supply might be difficult for some communities to achieve due to issues such as a lack of available land or environmental concerns.”
CMHC has previously said that an additional 3.5 million homes are needed to be built by 2030 for affordability.
However, CEO Romy Bowers told a Senate finance committee in December 2023 that there was no plan in place to solve the housing shortage.
“There are many factors that contribute to housing production including things like interest rate trajectories, the availability of skilled labour, local conditions that really impact housing delivery,” Ms. Bowers said.
A recent report from CIBC said that the CMHC estimation of 3.5 million new homes needed was “already obsolete.”
The report notes that CMHC used a base population of 38.9 million, which is 1.2 million short of the country’s actual population.
CIBC says closer to 5 million new homes are needed by 2030 to retain affordability.
