The federal, provincial, and territorial governments have significant resources and policy levers at their disposal to tackle the housing affordability crisis and ensure secure, affordable homes for everyone in Canada. Below, we outline key housing-related investments in each of the 2024 federal, provincial, and territorial budgets and assess their potential to advance the right to housing by supporting renters and investing in affordable housing.
FEDERAL
Budget 2024: Fairness for Every Generation
It is encouraging to see the federal government take a leadership role in tackling the housing crisis through a comprehensive approach by investing in a range of programs to increase housing supply, preserve and build affordable housing, protect renters, and address homelessness.
However, it is concerning that the government remains focused primarily on building more housing supply, despite evidence that more supply will not address housing affordability. In addition, that budget is missing a number of measures that CCHR recommended, including leveraging public lands for deeply affordable housing, expanding the Canada Housing Benefit, increasing investments in the Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous housing strategy, and implementing measures to address the financialization of housing and advance the right to housing. Read CCHR’s in-depth analysis here.
Reiterating many of the announcements from the recent Canada Housing Plan, the 2024 federal budget includes several key housing commitments. Highlights include:
- An additional $15 billion for the Apartment Construction Loan Program.
- $6 billion for a new Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund.
- $4.3 billion over seven years to an Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous housing strategy, previously announced.
- $1.5 billion for a new Canada Rental Protection Fund for non-profits to acquire and protect low-end of market rentals.
- $1.5 for the Co-operative Housing Development Program, previously announced.
- An additional $1 billion to the Reaching Home homelessness strategy, plus $250 million to address encampments.
- An additional $1 billion to the Rapid Housing Stream under the Affordable Housing Fund.
- Continuation of the existing $960 million Interim Housing Assistance Program.
- An additional $400 million for the Housing Accelerator Fund.
- $15 million for a new Tenant Protection Fund.
- A new Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights.
- Launching a Public Lands for Homes Plan, including $500 million towards a Public Lands Acquisition Fund and $116.9 million to top up the Federal Lands Initiative.
- Launching Canada Builds through a combination of federal low-cost loans and provincial and territorial investments.
- Removing GST from new co-ops and student housing, plus new rental apartment construction, previously announced.
ATLANTIC CANADA
New brunswick
Budget 2024-25 – Stronger than Ever: Let’s Keep Building
The 2024-25 budget increases investments in housing by 54 per cent over its previous budget. To reach provincial targets to reduce the number of households spending over 30 per cent of their income on rent and decrease the number of households on the subsidized housing waitlist, the budget prioritizes the provision of rent supplements. The government also aims to hold annual rent increases at an average of 2.5 per cent. However, rather than reinstating ever loosening rent regulations, the province intends to achieve that target by relying on the construction of new housing supply. Yet, in the absence of strong rent regulations, new supply on its own will not keep rent increases reasonable.
Development of the community housing sector is largely absent from this budget, with only 380 public housing units targeted for development over three years. Meanwhile, housing advocates have emphasized the need for investments to create 10,000 public housing units and preserve currently affordable units and land.
New Brunswick’s 2024-2025 budget includes many of the investments committed in the 2023 NB Housing Strategy: Housing For All:
- $100 million over three years to build new public housing units.
- $22 million for a direct-to-tenant rental benefit for families and seniors in core housing need.
- $11 million in permanent funding for homelessness responses, including operational funding for emergency shelters and Homeless Hubs, prevention and diversion services, and supportive housing development.
- $8.9 million for rent supplements.
- $5.5 million through the Canada Housing Benefit to help an additional 1,200 New Brunswick households.
- $3.5 million through the Canada Housing Benefit to support survivors of gender-based violence.
- $3 million through the Rent Bank to support renter households in arrears.
- $2.6 million to build affordable houses in partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
- $2.5 million to support the development and repair of rental units.
Newfoundland and labrador
Budget 2024 – Transforming: Our Health. Our Economy. Our Province
Through its 2024 budget, the province makes some investments to build and maintain public and supportive housing, while funding rent supplements and initiatives to stimulate market housing construction more generously. While CMHC forecasted that Newfoundland requires an additional 60,000 homes by 2030 beyond typical development trends, there are 17,510 households that require affordable housing now.
Advocates welcomed new funding toward affordable housing and homelessness initiatives, especially given that 50 per cent of the population experiencing homelessness in St. John’s are from other areas of the province, while the city has limited resources to adequately address the depth of need.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s 2024 Budget contains the following housing investments:
- $50 million for the Rental Housing Development Loan Program.
- $36 million over four years to build new provincial housing units.
- $30 million over three years for the construction of a new service hub to provide integrated health and housing supports for people experiencing homelessness.
- $21 million for private market rent supplements.
- $13 million for the Transitional Supportive Living Initiative.
- $12 million over four years for targeted provincial housing repairs and modernization, plus an $8 million increase to the overall provincial housing repairs, maintenance, and renovations budget.
- $4 million to continue the Secondary and Basement Suite Program.
- $3 million to rebate HST on new residential rental development.
- $1.5 million for new supportive housing units and low-barrier emergency shelter beds.
NOVA SCOTIA
Building Nova Scotia, Faster: Budget 2024-25
The 2024-25 budget invests heavily in initiatives to create more housing supply, following the province’s recent Housing Needs Assessment Report. The report identified the need for more student housing to lessen demand elsewhere in the market, while also noting the increasing cost of construction and employment vacancies in the construction industry as barriers to new housing supply.
With a budget focused largely on supply, investment in initiatives to protect affordable housing and assist households currently struggling with affordability are sorely missed. As we identified in our pre-budget submission, 8,500 rent supplements and modest investment in new public housing are insufficient to meet the needs of low- and moderate-income Nova Scotians.
Moreover, the rent regulation framework in Nova Scotia allows landlords to raise rents with impunity when there is renter turnover. A fixed-term lease loophole, which permits the use of leases with end dates, allows landlords to continually turnover units to new renters at higher rents. The government’s lack of action towards preserving existing affordable units and/or providing all renters with security of tenure is a glaring gap that will allow rents to continue to rise to unattainable levels, despite new supply.
Housing related investments in the 2024-2025 Nova Scotia budget include:
- $84.6 million for initiatives to address homelessness, including new supportive housing units and operational funding for shelters.
- $80-$100 million annually (estimated) in HST rebates on new purpose-built, multi-unit apartments.
- $69.2 million for rent supplements.
- $35.3 million to build and repair public housing units.
- $32.1 million for student housing.
- $11.8 million for modular public housing.
- $3.6 million for a rapid housing initiative to develop new affordable housing units.
Prince edward island
2024-25 Prince Edward Island Budget
It is encouraging to see the budget prioritize investments to build, preserve, and operate non-profit, co-operative, and public housing, which is critical to support households in greatest housing need and ensure long term affordability. However, housing advocates noted that PEI has lost a significant number of affordable housing units and questioned the efficacy of the budget’s level of investment in preservation and development efforts at this stage in the housing crisis.
The budget also fails to provide support for existing renters, following calls from advocates and opposition parties for an extension of the expired moratorium on renovictions until November 2024, in the midst of record-low vacancy rates. Advocates have similarly been seeking further renter supports and protections, including a rent registry to prevent illegal rent increases and a provincial maintenance standards regulation enforced through public inspectors (following the dilution of maintenance standards in the recently updated Residential Tenancy Act).
The 2024-25 Prince Edward Island (PEI) operating budget follows the launch of its five-year housing strategy and includes:
- $10 million for the new Community Housing Expansion Program to build and preserve affordable housing with non-profits and co-ops.
- $6.9 million to expand shelter spaces and supports.
- $6.7 million in tax rebates for new multi-unit residential buildings, including HST and property tax rebates.
- $1.6 million for PEI Housing Corporation to operate new social housing units.
- $200,000 to develop PEI’s Land Use Plan.
CENTRAL CANADA
ONTARIO
2024 Ontario Budget: Building a Better Ontario
Aside from the modest supportive housing investments, the budget prioritizes “attainable” housing initiatives (which it has yet to define), with minimal commitments toward preserving and building deeply affordable, non-market housing for low income households. This is reflected in current trends, as the vast majority of provincial housing starts over the past year have been in the private market. The promise of supportive housing development next year pales in comparison to the current depth of need, including for people experiencing homelessness.
The budget also fails to provide support or stabilization for renters, such as housing subsidies, stronger rent regulations, and greater accountability and enforcement of renter rights. Further, housing advocates had called for the budget to invest in a community housing acquisition fund, an urban, rural, and northern Indigenous housing strategy, and mechanisms to address financialization and implement the right to housing.
Following its recent red tape reduction bill, the province continues to prioritize initiatives to stimulate new housing supply with insufficient or absent affordability requirements. It also remains to be seen whether Ontario will receive National Housing Strategy funding after failing to meet its commitments to build more affordable housing.
The 2024 Ontario budget includes some new and previously announced housing investments, focused primarily on building new supply:
- $1.8 billion over three years for the new Municipal Infrastructure Program and enhanced Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund to support housing-enabling infrastructure.
- $152 million over three years for supportive housing, including rent supplements and support for units with expiring operating agreements, with new supportive housing development to be considered next year.
- Enabling municipalities to lower property taxes for new purpose-built rentals and implement a vacant home tax.
- Developing an attainable housing program, including modular and other innovative construction methods.
- Prioritizing surplus public properties for government priorities, including attainable housing.
QUEBEC
2024 Quebec Budget: Priorities: Health and Education
The Quebec budget brings investments in housing to $6.3 billion between 2019 and 2029, with the aim of creating 23,000 new affordable housing units across the province. However, funding for housing decreased by 4.9 per cent compared to last year, while construction is lagging, with close to 12,500 new units already funded but not yet built.
FRAPRU and other housing advocates expressed their disappointment in the lack of meaningful investments in social and non-profit housing, calling for the government to double its current housing supply targets and build 50,000 social housing units by 2029 to meet the needs of Quebec renters.
The 2024 Quebec budget outlines how previous funding commitments will be disbursed between existing housing programs over the next five years:
- $1.8 billion in cost-match funding with the federal government through the Housing Accelerator Fund.
- $532 million for homelessness prevention, including $282 million for transitional and social housing.
- $483 million for affordable housing, including $219 million to maintain and repair existing social housing stock and $200 million to increase rent supplements under the Shelter Allowance Program (Programme Allocation-logement).
- $375 million to build seniors housing.
- $7.5 million to build student housing.
WESTERN CANADA
MANITOBA
One Future. One People. One Manitoba. Budget 2024
Prior to the release of the budget, CCHR outlined several priorities for housing investments through our advocacy and media engagement. While the 2024 budget funds the acquisition or construction of new affordable housing, the 350 units of social housing promised is far short of the 1,000 rent-geared-to-income housing units needed, according to Manitoba’s Right to Housing Coalition. Moreover, the $67.8 million investment in social housing capital maintenance and modernization is welcome, but accounts for less than half of what the Manitoba Non-Profit Housing Association says is needed each year to ensure the sustainability of the community housing sector.
Under the newly created department of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness, the 2024 Manitoba budget includes:
- $67.8 million to modernize existing social housing and $4.4 million to maintain operating subsidies, previously announced.
- $20 million for a Capital Grant Program for community housing providers to increase affordable housing supply through acquisition, renovation, or new construction.
- $15 million for the Rent Assist housing benefit.
- $10 million for an Affordable Housing Partnership Program targeting the private sector, municipal, and Indigenous governments to increase affordable housing supply.
- A new $6 million Acquisition Fund for non-profits to acquire existing units.
- $5 million for housing supports to end chronic homelessness.
- $4 million for renovation of existing non-profit housing, plus $4 million for routine maintenance of Manitoba Housing units.
- $1 million for the Rent Relief Fund, which provides loans for renters in arears.
- $1 million for a Pest Control Program for Manitoba Housing
- A new Rental Housing Construction Tax Credit.
saskatchewan
2024-25 Saskatchewan Budget: Classrooms, Care & Communities
It is encouraging that the Saskatchewan government is focusing most of its new housing-related budget spending on social housing maintenance, alongside investments in supportive housing and other homelessness supports. However, long-term government divestment from its public housing portfolio has led to significant maintenance and repair backlogs, record vacancy levels, and overall reduction in the provincial social housing stock. In tandem with policy changes reducing the eligibility of moderate-income households to access subsidized housing, this approach has led to increased rates of homelessness and housing need across the province.
While the budget includes incentives for private sector housing development through tax rebates and funding for secondary suites, it fails to invest in the expansion of affordable, non-market housing, which is fundamental to meet the needs of low and moderate-income households, especially in light of the limited availability and habitability of its existing public housing stock. Moreover, the budget includes minimal support for renters, with a minor increase to shelter benefits available to SIS recipients (following previous cuts) and no additional investments in the Saskatchewan Housing Benefit.
The 2024-25 Saskatchewan budget includes:
- $23.1 million for the Provincial Approach to Homelessness for emergency shelter operations and supportive housing development.
- $20.2 million for the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation to repair and maintain social housing units.
- $7.4 million to increase Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) basic and shelter benefits by three per cent, up to $60 monthly per household.
- $2.7 million for the Saskatchewan Secondary Suite Incentive Grant Program.
- Ongoing Provincial Sales Tax (PST) rebate on the New Home Construction Program.
ALBERTA
2024 Alberta Budget: A Responsible Plan for a Growing Province
Alberta’s total budget for housing and homelessness exceeds $1 billion in funding, with $829 million to build new affordable housing and preserve existing units, representing a 75 per cent increase from last year’s budget. It is promising to see the Alberta government increasing housing supports for marginalized populations and dedicating more funding toward subsidized housing and non-profit housing providers.
However, over half of the budget’s capital investments are geared towards private sector incentives, while funding for housing affordability pales in comparison with the depth of need, particularly for low-income renters. Budget 2024 provides assistance to 5,650 households, in addition to the 58,600 the province is currently supporting, which represents a mere 3.5 per cent of all households in need. Additionally, in spite of a strong start to 2024 for new builds, home prices are surging and rents have increased to a record high.
Housing advocates in Calgary have lauded the more progressive measures in the housing budget, while advocates in Edmonton have deplored cuts made to emergency assistance funding. While the budget addresses some of the measures that CCHR recommended, it is missing crucial measures to improve housing affordability, such as prioritizing non-profit developers to build new affordable supply and indexing rent supplements to inflation. Without strong rent regulations and meaningful investments in social and community housing, the encouraging steps the government has taken to increase housing supports and preserve existing units will signify little in the face of escalating housing and living costs.
The 2024 Alberta budget increases investments over the next three years to advance existing housing and shelter programs, focusing on building new supply:
- $717 million in capital grants through Alberta’s Affordable Housing Strategy, including:
- $405 million for the Affordable Housing Partnership Program, which provides funding or land to incentivize developers to build affordable housing.
- $130 million for the Seniors Lodge Modernization Program.
- $91 million for the maintenance and renewal of government-owned social housing buildings.
- $75 million for the Indigenous Housing Capital Program to build, purchase, or redevelop Indigenous housing.
- $257 million for Alberta Social Housing Corporation operations.
- $170 million in combined funding under the Homelessness Task Force Action Plan, the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Program and Alberta’s Safe Streets Action Plan, to support shelter providers and improve shelter spaces and services, prioritizing women with experience of domestic violence.
- $121 million for capital maintenance and renewal of seniors’ facilities.
- $75 million in operating funding to support community and non-profit housing providers.
British Columbia
Budget 2024: Taking action for people and families in B.C.
While the 2024 budget for housing is modest compared to the previous year, the province is still making significant investments in housing that complement a string of recent legislative measures to increase residential density, protect renters, and preserve affordable housing. Over the next three years, $2.4 billion in capital spending will be dedicated to housing, with an 115 per cent increase in funding for housing subsidies and incentives.
However, while the introduction of additional supports for renters has been welcomed, the budget continues to prioritize attainable homeownership for moderate-income households. The new supply expected under B.C. Builds would need to be 12 to 15 times higher to meet demand for housing across the province. As B.C. continues to lead the country in high rent prices, current housing investments are insufficient to provide enough affordable housing for low- to moderate-income renters. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association note that the tax exemption funding for homeownership, along with the homeowner grant program, could be put to better use if directed towards rent supports and investments in non-market supply.
The 2024 B.C. budget prioritizes supports for renters, while continuing to fund new housing supply over the next three years:
- $267 million to launch the Renter’s Tax Credit, which provides up to $400 in tax exemption to low- and moderate-income renters.
- $198 million in new funding for BC Builds on top of the $950 million already committed, to speed up the development of new housing for middle-income households.
- $151 million to develop Indigenous-led social housing and community services.
- $116 million in operational funding to support existing housing programs and maintain shelter spaces.
- $100 million to increase the limits on tax exemption programs to stimulate demand for homeownership.
- $4 million to extend the Property Transfer Tax exemption to purpose-built rental buildings of four or more units, until 2030.
NORTHERN CANADA
NUNAVUT
Nunavut Budget 2024-2025
Most renter households in Nunavut have limited interaction with the market. In Iqaluit, for instance, most of the rental housing is non-market based. Leases are typically held by government organizations and rented out as social housing through the Nunavut Housing Corporation (which administers 22 per cent of all rental units in Iqaluit) or as government staff housing. Employers also typically hold leases and rent units out as employee housing for private firms. As such, housing funding in the budget is mainly directed towards maintaining existing and building new public housing.
However, Nunavut has the highest level of housing need in Canada. Approximately 49 per cent of the population cannot secure housing that is affordable in the private market, which underscores the need for more rental supplements to support renters in the private market, in addition to the current funding commitments for public sector housing.
The 2024-2025 Nunavut budget includes:
- $82.7 million to build new public and staff housing, including through the Nunavut 3000 plan, plus support for home ownership and repairs.
- $7.7 million for additional public housing for local housing authorities.
- $7.5 million for supportive housing.
- $1.9 million for shelters.
YUKON
Yukon Budget 2024-2025
It is promising to see funding going towards renovating units owned by the Yukon Housing Corporation, through which the territorial government provides a significant amount of affordable housing stock. It is also encouraging to see funding for new affordable homes and Housing First projects, the development of supportive units and rental housing, and rental subsidies. Investments in rental subsidies are crucial, as the most recent data available shows that 20 per cent of families in Whitehorse cannot afford market housing without financial assistance.
Some advocates have called for greater investment in rural land development to improve housing access. CCHR has recommended that land development policies should prioritize affordable and non-profit housing to ensure that public investments result in deeply affordable housing units.
The 2024-2025 Yukon budget includes:
- $27.3 million to build affordable homes, community housing and Housing First projects and replace aging units.
- $25.9 million to support land development across the Yukon, including for housing.
- $8.3 million for rental housing development.
- $6 million to develop supportive housing units.
- $5.5 million in loans for individuals and developers to buy and build houses, and for homeowners to repair their principal residence.
- $2 million to renovate and rehabilitate Yukon Housing Corporation units.
- $1.2 million in rental subsidies through the Canada-Yukon Housing Benefit.
- $2.1 million in rental subsidies for people escaping gender-based violence.