Government Tables Bill Giving Build Canada Homes Land Acquisition Power

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson speaks with media before appearing at the House of Commons transport committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Aug. 1, 2025. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

The Liberal government has tabled legislation that would make its housing agency into a Crown corporation and give it the authority to acquire and develop land and the ability to partner with private developers to build homes.

“We are in a housing crisis, one that is the result of three decades of underinvestment in the construction and maintenance of Canada’s affordable housing. At this pivotal time, Canadians elected us with a mandate to build,” Housing Minister Gregor Robertson said when introducing the Build Canada Homes Act on Feb. 5 in Parliament.

Since Build Canada Homes (BCH) was launched in September 2025, the agency has advanced six major affordable housing projects, which Robertson said would create more than 4,000 homes.

Robertson said the new legislation would give the agency the ability to provide partners with a “flexible mix of financial tools,” such as low-interest loans and loan guarantees to equity investments.

BCH would also be able to acquire and develop property and build on public land. Robertson said Canada Lands Company, which has an “existing land bank of property that can be developed,” will move under the new agency. The Liberal government previously said this included 88 federal properties suitable for housing.

Robertson said BCH will also invest in making modern methods of construction and building technologies more readily available. He said the previous day, BCH launched a request for information to engage Canadian companies specializing in prefabricated systems.

When asked if BCH wanted pension funds to become involved in affordable housing, Robertson said the government wants “all types of Canadian investment to be looking at opportunities to invest in affordable housing,” but that pension funds and banks have typically not been interested in those investments because they don’t have significant financial returns.

“By de-risking affordable housing over the long term, over many decades, Build Canada Homes has an opportunity to attract more private capital, such as from pension funds or banks,” Robertson said.

During the last federal election, the Liberal Party pledged to “double the pace of construction” to almost 500,000 new homes a year. According to the latest figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, there were 259,028 housing starts across Canada in 2025, compared to 245,367 the previous year.

Budget 2025 allocated an initial $13 billion for BCH over five years, in addition to eliminating the GST for first-time home buyers on new homes up to $1 million and reducing the GST for first-time home buyers on new homes between $1 million and $1.5 million.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) said in a December 2025 report that BCH would create just 26,000 housing units over five years, representing a 2.1 percent increase in housing completions. It estimated that of the 26,000 new housing units, 13,000 will be for low-income households.

The previous PBO, Yves Giroux, projected in April 2024 that Canada would need 1.3 million new homes by 2030 to reduce the country’s housing gap and restore its long-term vacancy rate.

The Conservatives have been critical of the Liberal government’s housing policies, saying its initiatives will not meet Canada’s housing needs and that more effort is needed to cut red tape and incentivize development. However, the Tories haven’t yet declared a position on the government’s latest tabled bill.

The NDP have criticized the bill for giving “broad powers” to Build Canada Homes, and said the bill doesn’t define the term “affordable housing.”