Canada’s federal government has introduced Budget 2025: Canada Strong, a plan designed to make the country’s economy more resilient, and several Ontario construction associations have shared their responses.
According to the government, Budget 2025 is a plan to build the major infrastructure, homes, and industries that grow the economy and create lasting prosperity. This plan also aims to protect communities, borders, and residents’ way of life.
According to the government, Budget 2025 delivers on the Comprehensive Expenditure Review to modernise government, improve efficiencies, and deliver better results and services for Canadians.
It includes a total of $60 billion in savings and revenues over five years, and makes generational investments in housing, infrastructure, defence, productivity and competitiveness.
Budget 2025 has garnered mixed reactions from various construction associations.
The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) says that despite urgent calls for action, the budget presented no new measures to address housing affordability for the average Canadian who still wants to become a homeowner. It also argued that these measures will only help a small portion of those in need and will not ease the broader housing supply shortage.
“The lack of focus on additional measures that will help Canadians who work hard and have good jobs move into the ranks of homeownership, which most still aspire to, is very troubling, especially in light of the fact that last year’s budget had good momentum with positive policy reform for market-rate housing,” said CHBA CEO Kevin Lee. “Canada can’t double housing starts if the country can’t tap into the investment power of individual Canadian families to buy their own home. The government needs to go back to including market-rate ownership as part of the housing affordability equation, and we will continue to make recommendations on how to do so.”
The Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON), however, said it is pleased that Budget 2025 solidifies pledges and programs that the federal government announced earlier to spur new housing construction, especially the commitment to cut sales taxes.
“Eliminating the GST on new homes at or under $1 million and reducing it on those up to $1.5 million for first-time buyers is a step in the right direction because exorbitant taxes, fees and levies are crippling the residential construction industry,” said RESCON president Richard Lyall. “First-time buyers represent a substantial segment of the market, and we are already seeing increased traffic at sales centres as a result of the move. It is a step in the right direction.”
RESCON also said it looks forward to working with the federal government on the Build Canada Homes initiative.
The Large Urban Centre Alliance, co-facilitated by BILD, expressed it was “deeply disappointed and concerned” with the federal budget’s response to the serious crisis impacting the housing sector in Canada’s largest municipalities.
“This budget relies on backward-looking data that provides false reassurances that Canada’s housing sector is prospering and that affordability is improving. But these are stale statistics. The latest figures show that new home sales have evaporated across all housing types in every major city across Canada – and a hundred thousand jobs are at risk,” said David Wilkes, president and CEO of BILD and co-facilitator of the Large Urban Centre Alliance. “Today’s budget missed an opportunity to address the historic downturn that the housing industry is experiencing with sales at near crisis levels. The lack of urgency to confront the current situation is committing us to a future of fewer jobs and less housing of all types in the years ahead.”
It said that while Budget 2025 acknowledges the affordability challenges in new home construction by confirming an increase to the GST/HST rebate thresholds to the first $1 million, with a declining rebate to $1.5 million, it is only for first-time buyers. It also acknowledged that there is an allocation of $12 billion over 10 years to housing enabling infrastructure, however, Budget 2025’s treatment of Development Charges (DCs) is “particularly troubling.”
The Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS) has expressed cautious optimism about Budget 2025. It welcomed measures supporting infrastructure, skilled trades, and workforce development, with new opportunities for Ontario’s construction sector, and noted that there is a clear focus on supporting growth and “building a stronger Canada.”