Ottawa wants to facilitate the construction of affordable housing on federal lands

Photo: Sean Kilpatrick archives The Canadian Press Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser

The Canadian Press

Published at 14:32

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The federal government has added 56 properties to a new bank of public lands that are suitable for long-term leases so developers can build affordable housing.

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser and Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos made the announcement Sunday, hours before the start of a cabinet meeting that runs through Tuesday in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The meeting is intended to prepare for the upcoming fall session of Parliament.

Former military bases, Canada Post sites and federal office buildings are among the properties currently included in the public land bank, many of which were previously earmarked for sale because they are no longer in use.

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The new plan is to offer most of these properties for long-term leases, rather than a one-time sale, to keep the land in public hands and ensure that housing built on the land remains affordable.

The current list includes properties in 28 municipalities across seven provinces, but it will grow over time through an ongoing review of underused or vacant federal land and buildings.

Five properties, first identified in the April budget, are now moving into the development phase, with the government asking developers to express interest or submit requests for proposals.

Four of them are on former military bases in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa, while the fifth is the site of a former National Film Board building in Montreal.

“Land is one of the biggest costs of construction. By building on public land, we can make it easier to build, and by leasing these properties, we can ensure that the housing we build remains affordable over the long term,” Fraser said in a statement.

The new land bank and an accelerated plan to convert federal properties into housing were part of the Liberals' sweeping housing plan announced in April, some of the details of which were unveiled in the spring budget.

Housing will be a key issue at the cabinet retreat, as Canadians continue to face high costs and limited availability.

The annual late-summer session of the Cabinet takes place three weeks before Parliament returns for the fall session and is likely the last summer retreat of that cabinet before the next election.