Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund as part his administration’s strategy to address the country’s shortage of affordable housing. The announcement is part of a preview of key initiatives for the 2024 federal budget.

The new fund is intended to provide the provinces, territories and municipalities with a new funding source to meet the infrastructure needs for the construction of additional housing. The projects eligible for funding will include water, solid waste and other related infrastructure systems. The fund is broken into two parts:

• $1 billion for municipalities for current infrastructure needs to “directly” spur additional housing.
• $5 billion for provinces and territories that meet certain requirements or conditions, such as municipal adoption of four units “as-of-right” and a three-year freeze on development charge increases.

In a press release from NAIOP’s Canadian chapters, 2024 NAIOP Chair-elect Alexander Thomson stated, "We welcome the federal government's commitment to the funding of housing-enabling infrastructure across Canada. This is a significant investment to help struggling municipalities build and renew essential infrastructure, and we hope that this can be done while respecting both provincial and municipal responsibilities so that the funding can be put to work quickly. We are also pleased to see the federal government acknowledge that development charges must be frozen to help get essential housing built."

NAIOP’s Canadian chapters are committed to strengthening their alliances in advancing the interest of commercial real estate on national issues.