Improving permitting and planning key to affordable housing: minister

The federal minister in charge of affordable housing says he would like municipalities to reshape local rules to more quickly build units through the government's national housing strategy.

Social Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said some cities and towns have already started to align their permitting and planning process with the federal strategy, but adds many have not.

He said it would be key to boosting the supply of housing and rental units that should ease costs fuelled by rising demand.

In an interview, Hussen said he's particularly concerned cities aren't doing enough to add units in the areas between the suburbs and downtown cores in a process known as intensification.

Hussen and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland earlier this week met with experts about the country's hot housing market, which has made it more difficult for some to buy alongside limited options for rental units.

“It's not just the federal government. There are things that the municipalities can do, there are things that the provinces can do,” Hussen said. “They can improve the permitting and planning process to better align with the national housing strategy requirements so that affordable housing is built faster. I've achieved that with a number of municipalities, but not all of them, so there is a lot of potential.”

The cost of housing has risen nationwide over the last year, driven by a mix of low interest rates, demand outstripping supply as Canadians working from home look for more space, and recently rising costs for materials like lumber.

April's federal budget proposed billions in new spending to boost the supply of affordable housing, seeing it as a way to bring down overall prices, and proposed a one-per-cent tax on vacant homes owned by foreign buyers to dampen speculation and force owners to start renting out properties.

Weeks later, the Liberals tightened the stress test for insured mortgages to match a similar move by a federal banking regulator for uninsured mortgages.