The federal Liberals want to boost pre-fabricated housing and are again laying out millions of dollars in more spending as political pressure to tackle the housing crunch builds.
Friday’s announcements on more funds for pre-fab construction and as part of a series of announcements teeing up what is set to be a housing-focused budget.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement in Calgary, Friday, with a $600 million price tag.
Of this, $50 million is set aside for a to launch a “Home Building Technology Innovation Fund.”
The stated goal of this is to help the private sector scale up and commercialize building techniques for modular and prefabricated homes.
It’s part of the work to roll out the Housing Design Catalogue, which aims to put a modern spin on the old wartime housing program.
The government says the catalogue will carry an $11 million price tag this year and include up to 50 types of prefabricated home designs.
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On Wednesday, Housing Minister Sean Fraser told reporters that he expects to have the first “dozen or so” designs ready this fall.
“We’re going to aim to have, the first tranche include some small multiplexes and accessory dwelling units. We will eventually be producing designs for some larger buildings and single-family homes as well,” Fraser said.
Of the proposed $600 million laid out for the Liberal plans, $500 million of that is earmarked for low-cost financing on prefabricated or modular apartment builds.
This is part of the $15-billion increase to the apartment loan construction program announced earlier this week.
The remaining $50 million as part of this announcement will be spread between the government’s regional economic development agencies to put more funding into “dozens” or projects related to newer home building practices.
These projects include initiatives like mass timber construction, robotics, 3D printing and automation.
Other announcements this week include the aforementioned $15-billion increase to the apartment loan construction program, $400 million more to the $4.4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund, $1.5 billion Rental Protection Fund and a new $6-billion infrastructure fund to help build things like water and sewage hook-ups for new housing builds.
This last item has become a source of tension with several provinces due to the requirement to mandate pre-approved zoning for fourplexes and other small multi-unit dwellings in residential areas.
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