Budget 2026 omits references to a goal of doubling overall homebuilding and instead sets a plan to triple non-market housing starts over the next decade.
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The federal government’s Housing Minister’s office says Ottawa is still working toward doubling the pace of homebuilding over the next decade, despite Budget 2026 not including references to that earlier target.
The 511-page budget, tabled last week, dropped any mention of the affordability-linked goal introduced in the Liberals’ 2025 election platform and repeated in that year’s budget. Instead, Budget 2026 lays out a plan to triple the pace of non-market housing construction to 24,000 starts per year over the next decade.
In response to questions about whether Ottawa is abandoning the doubling goal for overall homebuilding, Gregor Robertson’s office pointed to a statement made in May, six months earlier, saying the government was still “working toward doubling homebuilding over the next decade.”
Parliamentary Budget Officer Annette Ryan previously noted that although spring fiscal updates discussed affordability supports, they did not include “specific targets or metrics for the pace of home building.”
Robertson’s office also pointed to data it said shows housing starts are up by more than 20 per cent since the pre-pandemic period, rental construction is at a record pace, and rents have trended lower over the past few years.
Conservative MP Scott Aitchison accused the Liberals of quietly dropping the promise to double homebuilding and replacing it with a smaller non-market target, calling it “another Liberal housing illusion.” He said: “Tripling the speed of slow is still unbearably slow and will not restore affordability.”
The federal housing agency CMHC has said Canada is entering a “new phase” as slowing population growth is expected to bring more balance to rental markets, while warning the pace of housing starts is still below what is needed to restore pre-pandemic affordability in the next 10 years. CMHC’s “business-as-usual” forecast projects Canada will break ground on 231,000 homes per year, leaving the market up to 238,000 homes short of affordable levels by 2036.
CMHC said affordability will remain out of reach if Canada does not build housing supply quickly ahead of a potential next surge in demand.
Some analysts said the doubling target would be difficult to achieve. Mike Moffatt of the Missing Middle Institute said doubling homebuilding would require raising annual housing starts to 500,000, from a level Canada has topped out at around 300,000, and he said the target may be “excessive.” He also argued that the headline target does not specify what types of homes are needed.
Simon Fraser University’s Andy Yan said the original homebuilding goal was “more aspirational than realistic,” while adding that programs such as the Housing Accelerator Fund and the Apartment Construction Loan Program have been “fairly successful,” particularly for rental construction. Yan said barriers to building often sit at the municipal level and that many levers for stimulating construction are not directly in federal hands.
The Housing Accelerator Fund ties federal cash to pro-development policy changes, while Budget 2026 proposes $13 billion over 10 years for Build Canada Homes and commits tens of billions of dollars over the coming decade to an effort to end homelessness across the country.
Moffatt warned that constraints affecting broader construction also apply to non-market housing, saying there is “no non-market drywall” and “no non-market lumber,” and that a non-market social housing target would be “hardly a slam dunk.”
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