Canada has an ambitious plan to double the pace of homebuilding within a decade but the first big challenge is finding enough skilled workers, as the country grapples with the tightest labor market on record and with construction already at a multi-year high.
Building more homes is a key peg of the C$9.5 billion in housing spending outlined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government in their budget on Thursday.
The average selling price of a Canadian home has surged more than 50% in the last two years, driven by record low interest rates and tight supply. Construction has failed to keep pace with immigration-driven population growth.
But the plan to build hundreds of thousands of new homes runs counter the reality that home building is generally the purview of municipal and provincial governments, leaving the federal government little role beyond handing out money.
"It's very ambitious. I would say it's going to be equally challenging to pull it off, simply because the construction sector is already more or less operating at full capacity," said Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Economics.
"And we are already building a record number of homes in this country."
Canada has the lowest number of housing units per 1,000 residents of any Group of Seven nation, and that has been on the decline due to population growth, Bank of Nova Scotia economists said in a report last year.
There are nearly 300,000 units under construction across Canada, compared with about 240,000 just two years ago, government data shows.
Canada is building "a lot and not enough," said William Strange, professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto. "We've taken decades getting into this situation and we're not going to get out of it in six months."
Canada has added more than 100,000 construction jobs in the last four months alone, a historic run of increases for the sector. Overall jobless rate fell to a record 5.3% in March.
"Just the sheer volume of work that exists within the industry (creates) a lot of pressure on the various trades," said Jim Ritchie, chief operating officer of Tridel, which develops condominiums in the Toronto area.
"So there's a lot of demand for that workforce."
Canada's immigration program could be a double-edged sword, as it brings in more skilled workers to replace a fast-retiring workforce, but also fuels housing demand. There is also a mismatch between the workers Canada is currently targeting and those it needs.
"Right now, our immigration policies are more geared towards attracting white collar labor than blue collar labor," said Mike Moffatt, senior director of policy and innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute.
Construction costs rose nearly 10% in 2021 and are set to climb again, driven by higher labor and materials costs, adding to the near-term challenges, said Ritchie of Tridel.
Municipal and provincial approval delays, which the federal government hopes to address with a C$4 billion "Housing Accelerator Fund," and the availability of land add to the hurdles.
"There a whole bunch of levers that need to be pulled and increasing labor supply... is one of them," said Justin Sherwood, a spokesperson for the Building Industry and Land Development Association in the Toronto area.
Still, Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was undeterred.
"We are going to do everything we say we're going to do," she told reporters on Thursday when asked about the challenge of meeting the plan.
"A growing population needs a growing housing supply."
(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa and Nichola Saminathar in TorontoEditing by Nick Zieminski)
Israel and Hezbollah exchanged strikes along the Israel-Lebanon border on Thursday as Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed retaliation for attacks earlier this week on his group’s communication devices.
Longtime cabinet minister Pablo Rodriguez will be sitting as an Independent MP after stepping down as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s transport minister and Quebec Lieutenant, CTV News has learned.
A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.
A special ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome marked the successful recovery of an iconic portrait of Winston Churchill after a two-year search by Ottawa police.
Two suspects broke into a cheque-cashing business in Atlanta through the ceiling and forced an employee to open the safe, where they stole US$150K.
The mayor of an Alberta city appeared to suggest that residents should use inhumane tactics to deal with feral cats.
A 64-year-old woman was preparing to do her evening dishes at her home outside Bangkok when she felt a sharp pain in her thigh and looked down to see a huge python taking hold of her.
Two people have been arrested, and three others are still at large in connection with a door-to-door sales fraud that police said victimized more than 200 people across Ontario.
NASA scientists have successfully replicated spider-like shapes found on the surface of Mars in a laboratory setting for the first time.
The mayor of an Alberta city appeared to suggest that residents should use inhumane tactics to deal with feral cats.
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called for a provincial election. Voters will go to the polls on Oct. 21, as prescribed by the province's fixed-date election law.
A special ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome marked the successful recovery of an iconic portrait of Winston Churchill after a two-year search by Ottawa police.
Police have identified the two men killed in an early Wednesday morning shooting at a park north of Toronto. York Regional Police (YRP) say officers were called to Bayview Park, near Bayview and Lowndes avenues in Keswick, Ont., just before 7:30 a.m. for a report of shots fired.
Thomas Hamp says he believed secret police were out to kidnap, torture, and kill him when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche in February of 2022.
Two people have been arrested, and three others are still at large in connection with a door-to-door sales fraud that police said victimized more than 200 people across Ontario.
A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child tells her story in a new campaign ad for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In the quiet corners of Springfield, Ohio — out of sight of the drumbeat of politicians and journalists, troopers and newly installed security cameras — the people who live here are taking a breath, praying and attempting to carry on.
Two suspects broke into a cheque-cashing business in Atlanta through the ceiling and forced an employee to open the safe, where they stole US$150K.
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, La'Quetta, the city's superintendent of schools, have been indicted on child endangerment and other charges for allegedly beating their teenage daughter on numerous occasions, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Both major presidential candidates are making appearances Thursday meant to fire up their core supporters, with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris participating in a livestream with Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump attending an event with prominent Jewish donors before addressing a gathering of the Israeli-American Council.
A mission specialist for the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year told the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday that the firm was staffed by competent people who wanted to 'make dreams come true.'
Longtime cabinet minister Pablo Rodriguez will be sitting as an Independent MP after stepping down as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s transport minister and Quebec Lieutenant, CTV News has learned.
A federal inquiry into foreign interference is scheduled to hear today from Bloc Quebecois, Green and New Democratic Party officials.
Canada's senior public servant has invited his provincial and territorial counterparts to apply for top secret-level security clearance as a way of fostering 'healthy, transparent dialogue' on foreign interference and other threats.
Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
Manitobans are getting another reminder of how long wait times are for diagnostic images.
Supervised injection sites are saving the lives of drug users everyday, but the same support is not being offered to people who inhale illicit drugs, the head of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says.
NASA scientists have successfully replicated spider-like shapes found on the surface of Mars in a laboratory setting for the first time.
Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
Elon Musk is using his social media platform to promote misinformation about the U.S. presidential candidates in the lead up to the November election, amplifying false claims Wednesday about a Trump rally bomb threat and immigrants eating pets in Ohio.
British actress Florence Pugh has revealed that shaving her head for her latest movie role was a 'really bizarre' experience that sent her body 'into a bit of trauma.'
MrBeast is accused of creating 'unsafe' employment conditions, including sexual harassment, and misrepresenting contestants' odds at winning his new Amazon reality show's US$5 million grand prize in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by five unnamed participants.
Lawyers for Sean "Diddy Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn.
TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Low entry-level pay in the tentative deal between Air Canada and its pilots could be a stumbling block ahead of a union vote on the agreement, some aviators and experts say.
A senior Bank of Canada official says the central bank must be rigorous and transparent in order to maintain the public's trust.
Trips can make lifelong memories when they go off without a hitch, but cancellations and rescheduled events are common because of artist illnesses, poor ticket sales, security threats, unruly weather and natural disasters.
Only a month after Thailand's adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable.
The Michelin Guide released its 2024 restaurant selection for the Toronto region Wednesday night. Here are the four new establishments getting a Michelin star:
Matthew Tkachuk estimated that he tells a story about Johnny Gaudreau's exploits, both the on-ice and off-ice variety, to somebody at least once a week.
A soccer player who once appeared for Arsenal in the Champions League has been charged in connection with trying to smuggle cannabis worth 600,000 pounds (US$800,000) through a British airport.
Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality. But two years later, spending on the construction of the Umicore plant has been delayed in what the company calls a "significant worsening of the EV market context."
A Winnipeg man is asking for help after a classic car that has been a part of his family since the 1950s was stolen from his garage.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.
A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.
If you take a look to the right of Hilda Duddridge’s 100th birthday cake, you’ll see a sculpture of a smiling girl extending her arms forward.
The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
Police have closed Highway 1 eastbound through Langley while they investigate a crash that left a motorcyclist dead early Thursday morning.
If the lead up to British Columbia's provincial election campaign is any indication of what’s to come, voters should expect the unexpected.
Police have identified the two men killed in an early Wednesday morning shooting at a park north of Toronto. York Regional Police (YRP) say officers were called to Bayview Park, near Bayview and Lowndes avenues in Keswick, Ont., just before 7:30 a.m. for a report of shots fired.
Toronto saw a record-breaking wet summer, but September has proven to be anything but, with less than five millimetres of rain recorded this month.
An Ontario mother lost $1,800 hoping to get Taylor Swift tickets for her seven-year-old daughter. 'I don't understand how someone could just take advantage of someone and their hard-earned money, and it was a gift for a seven-year-old girl,' Dana Caputo, of Tottenham, Ont., told CTV News Toronto.
The mayor of an Alberta city appeared to suggest that residents should use inhumane tactics to deal with feral cats.
10 things to do in Calgary this weekend.
Canada's oilsands industry remains under pressure to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint, even as companies have clamped down on public communications in the wake of new anti-greenwashing legislation.
Statistics from Health Quality Ontario show all five Ottawa hospital emergency rooms exceeded the provincial average for wait times for a first assessment by a doctor in July, which was 2 hours.
Ontario Provincial Police are issuing a warning to be on guard against fraudsters, after an 84-year-old eastern Ontario woman had money removed from her bank account in an alleged online fraud.
A search continues in the Ottawa River for a 30-year-old woman reported missing while kayaking near Pembroke, Ont.
Public services in Quebec are becoming dehumanized, warns Quebec Ombudsman Marc-André Dowd in his 2023-2024 annual report, which is filled with concrete examples.
Quebec Premier François Legault is calling on the Bloc Québécois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.
A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.
The mayor of an Alberta city appeared to suggest that residents should use inhumane tactics to deal with feral cats.
Canada's oilsands industry remains under pressure to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint, even as companies have clamped down on public communications in the wake of new anti-greenwashing legislation.
After four consecutive days with afternoon temperatures in the 20s, a brief cool down is looming.
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called for a provincial election. Voters will go to the polls on Oct. 21, as prescribed by the province's fixed-date election law.
Halifax Public Libraries reopened Thursday after workers accepted a new collective agreement, ending a nearly month-long strike.
The multi-million-dollar highway connector between Lower Sackville and Dartmouth has been delayed again.
A Winnipeg university has been evacuated due to a suspicious item on campus.
A Manitoba man is warning others after he fell victim to an elaborate online scam over the summer.
Another voice has joined the public war of words between a Manitoba MLA ousted from caucus and the premier who backed the decision to scrap him from the team.
RCMP say officers were sent to a serious crash Wednesday night involving a semi and passenger truck about three kilometres east of Wapella, Sask.
Regina Executive Committee has passed the purchase of a new building for a low-barrier homeless shelter in Regina.
An ongoing investigation into drug trafficking has resulted in the seizure of cocaine in Yorkton, according to RCMP.
Police are hoping the public can help them locate three missing people from Kitchener.
Almost three weeks into the school year and some families are still on waitlists for before and after school care and it’s exposing some major gaps in the education system.
A fire broke out Tuesday night at Rosewood House, Brantford’s largest homelessness shelter, leaving 40 residents without a place to stay or the essential services they rely on.
Thomas Hamp says he believed secret police were out to kidnap, torture, and kill him when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche in February of 2022.
A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.
May 9, 2022 was the day Blayne McKay thought he was going to die. He called his wife to say goodbye, after getting electrocuted at the SaskPower Island Falls Hydroelectric Station, about 100 kilometres northwest of Flin Flon.
One person is dead and another is in hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries after a crash involving a commercial and passenger vehicle on Highway 101 west of Timmins on Wednesday afternoon.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Remediation work at the North Bay Jack Garland Airport is set to begin in the next few weeks.
A shooting early Wednesday morning is being investigated by London police after a man showed up at hospital with gunshot wounds — the catch, police don't know where the shooting happened.
The mother and brother of an 18-year-old who was shot and killed during a teen field party more than three years ago gave emotional victim impact statements on Wednesday.
The London Children’s Museum says it will not be able to open its new site by the end of the year, as planned, unless it can come up with another $1 million.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Check your lottery tickets because someone who purchased a ticket in Grey County is an overnight multi-millionaire, having won half of the historic lottery jackpot.
York Regional Police say two people are dead after a shooting at a park in the community of Keswick.
Windsor firefighters responded to a vacant building fire on Wednesday night.
Windsor police are asking for the public’s help to identify two suspects involved in a $64,000 bank fraud investigation.
Amherstburg town council has secured the funding they need to get rid of a historical eye-sore.
The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
If the lead up to British Columbia's provincial election campaign is any indication of what’s to come, voters should expect the unexpected.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
More than a year after a missing Kamloops, B.C., woman’s body was found, her son has been arrested and charged with her murder, Mounties announced Friday.
A woman suffered life-threatening injuries after being stabbed during a home invasion in Kelowna, according to authorities.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.
The City of Lethbridge's encampment response team continues to see a rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness throughout the summer months.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
A 50-year-old man in the Sault has been charged following an assault on Saturday that involved the use of a hammer.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.
