Today, federal, provincial, and territorial ministers responsible for housing met in Vancouver, British Columbia, to discuss solutions to key housing and homelessness issues facing people in Canada.
Co-chaired by the Honourable Gregor Robertson, Canada's Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, and the Honourable Bernadette Smith, Manitoba's Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness, the meeting of Federal, Provincial and Territorial Forum on Housing focused on a coordinated approach to advancing housing and homelessness priorities and strengthening collaboration to meet pressing and evolving needs across the country.
Amongst the most critical issues facing the country is the shortage of affordable housing, and the severity of homelessness that requires expanding deeply affordable, supportive and transitional housing. The housing crisis is multi-faceted, leading to a complex and rapidly evolving environment - one that demands a strengthened partnership between jurisdictions and collaboration across sectors, such as trade, labour, urban planning, to break down barriers to accelerate housing supply and increase affordability.
Ministers acknowledge the positive impact of the nearly $16 billion in joint federal, provincial, and territorial investments under the National Housing Strategy[1], which have supported over 600,000 households across the country. With the expiry of the bilateral agreements under the National Housing Strategy in 2028, Ministers committed to renewing the federal, provincial and territorial housing partnership to ensure ongoing support for affordable housing.
Building on commitments made through the National Housing Strategy and at the First Ministers' Meeting in June 2025, Ministers agreed to keep working together to build a strong economy and advance innovative projects of importance for Canada, with provincial and territorial lenses, that can enable an increase in the supply of housing across the country, including affordable housing.
During the meeting, ministers reaffirmed their shared commitment to tackling the housing crisis with ambition, including through collaboration on shovel-ready affordable housing projects. Central to this discussion, the federal government presented its vision for Build Canada Homes-a new federal organization dedicated to addressing Canada's housing challenges with a focus on impactful, long-term affordable housing solutions across the country. Ministers discussed ideas for how Build Canada Homes could complement existing provincial and territorial initiatives and agreed to share information on priority projects that both orders of government could support.
Ministers also committed to working together on five priorities aimed at improving housing outcomes across the country:
- Renewing intergovernmental partnerships on affordable housing beyond the expiry of the National Housing Strategy in 2028;
- Addressing homelessness through strengthened responses and coordinated investments, including more deeply affordable, supportive and transitional housing with wraparound supports for vulnerable populations to help reduce chronic homelessness;
- Increasing housing supply, with a focus on affordable housing, by coordinating efforts to unlock new housing starts and reduce barriers;
- Supporting Indigenous housing and working with First Nations, Inuit and Métis to advance Indigenous-led solutions and improve access to safe, culturally appropriate housing; and,
- Scaling up modern methods of construction by accelerating the adoption of modular, prefabricated, and other innovative technologies, where they make sense, to enhance speed and efficiency in delivering housing.
Ministers concluded the meeting with a commitment to ongoing collaboration, regular engagement, and collective action to address Canada's housing crisis through the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Forum on Housing.
Minister Smith announced that as Manitoba's two-year term as provincial/territorial co-chair of the Federal, Provincial, Territorial Forum on Housing will come to an end in December 2025, Ontario will assume the next two-year provincial/territorial co-chair term beginning in January 2026.
[1] Although it shares several objectives of other governments, Québec has not endorsed the multilateral housing partnership framework and signed its bilateral agreement outside of the National Housing Strategy.
