Budget 2024 is seizing the opportunities of today to build a Canada that works better for every generation.
First, the new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund will accelerate the construction of the infrastructure communities need to build more homes. This fund includes $1 billion to address the urgent infrastructure needs of municipalities, such as water and sewer systems, so they can build more housing. The fund also includes $5 billion to be allocated to provinces and territories that have ambitious housing plans, to support long-term infrastructure priorities. Provinces and territories can only access this $5 billion in funding if they commit to the following key actions:
- Requiring municipalities to broadly adopt four units as-of-right and allow duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and other multi-unit apartments;
- Implementing a three-year freeze on increasing development charges from April 2, 2024, levels for municipalities with a population greater than 300,000;
- Adopting forthcoming changes to the National Building Code to support more accessible, affordable, and climate-friendly housing options;
- Requiring as-of-right construction for the government's upcoming Housing Design Catalogue; and,
- Implementing measures from the Home Buyers' Bill of Rights and Renters' Bill of Rights.
Provinces will have until January 1, 2025, to secure an agreement, and territories will have until April 1, 2025. If a province or territory does not secure an agreement by their respective deadlines, their funding allocation will be transferred to the municipal stream.
Second, in Budget 2024, the federal government is cutting red tape to get major job-creating projects done. The government is making regulatory reforms to improve efficiency of assessment processes so that more clean growth projects can get across the finish line, faster, to unlock new well-paying opportunities for Canadian workers. These reforms include:
- Investing $9 million over three years in a Clean Growth Office, located in the centre of government at the Privy Council Office, which will implement the recommendations of the Ministerial Working Group on Regulatory Efficiency for Clean Growth Projects to reduce interdepartmental inefficiencies, ensure that new permitting deadlines are met across government, improve data sharing between departments, and reduce redundant studies;
- Establishing a new Federal Permitting Coordinator to improve permitting for clean growth projects;
- Setting a target of five years or less to complete federal impact assessment and permitting processes for federally designated projects, and a target of two years or less for non-federally designated projects;
- Driving culture change to get clean growth projects built in a timely and predictable manner, by clarifying the roles and responsibilities of federal departments and agencies;
- Improving predictability for project proponents and increasing the federal government's transparency and accountability to Canadians, by building a Federal Permitting Dashboard reporting on the status of large project permitting;
- Setting a three-year target for nuclear project reviews, by streamlining the work of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and Impact Assessment Agency of Canada by reducing overlapping roles between the two agencies; and,
- Work to establish a Crown Consultation Coordinator to ensure efficient and meaningful Crown consultation with Indigenous Peoples on the issuance of federal regulatory permits to projects that do not undergo federal impact assessments.
Budget 2024's transformative investments will help to build more homes in vibrant, livable, and growing communities and get more major clean growth projects across the finish line, faster, so they can keep the Canadian economy competitive and create new jobs for Canadians today - and for generations to come.
