Provincial and federal governments plan more affordable housing in Centretown and Nepean

During the Mayor’s Breakfast held at the Rogers Centre on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney gave more details on how his build Canada Homes Fund will help build more affordable accommodations in Ottawa. 

The city and federal government combined will spend $400 million to build upwards of 3,000 new units that will be considered either partly or entirely affordable. The federal housing agency will deploy financing to “unlock an additional 1,000 non-market housing units in the city’s portfolio,” Carney said at the event.

“Under this agreement, the city will reduce or waive development charges, permit fees, and property taxes on priority projects for 2,000 housing units,” added the prime minister. 

The news was applauded by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe who said since his term of council started in 2022, the City has invested $105 million into affordable housing. Ottawa is also now the first Canadian municipality to secure an agreement with the new housing agency. 

Sutcliffe said a report will be presented to committee and then council early next year that will lay out additional details. 

Carney first unveiled his new homes initiative back in September standing in front of modular homes on Merivale Road on land owned by the National Capital Commission where housing could one day be built. 

To keep up with housing needs across the province, the parliamentary budget officer said in an August report that Canada needs to build 690,000 new housing units by 2035 in addition to what is already under construction. 

A vacant building, formerly a federal government campus, that was once the site of a Catholic education centre has been selected to be one of the first sites in Ottawa. 

Previous plans for the property on Heron Road would have seen six projects with 4,000 total units. Then came a scaled back plan to build 1,100 housing units. It is unclear how many units are now planned, but Carney said shovels are expected to be in the ground next year. 

The federal government is also going through its land bank to see what other sites could be used for affordable housing. In his opening remarks, Carney said the Jackson Building at 122 Bank St. will be among those transformed. 

Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi, who has been advocating for more affordable housing to be built through office conversions, told the Lookout last week that Jackson Building, “if done right, can have anywhere close to 3,350 homes.” He also said conversations are underway with the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition to consider housing for Indigenous communities. 

Naqvi also said that many affordable projects are already in the works, including Dream LeBreton – two towers under construction in partnership with multifaith housing – and phase one of Gladstone Village, which will see 336 new apartments built near Preston and Somerset Streets. That project includes 2,000 square feet of commercial space, event space, and apartments range from studio to four bedroom suites. 

Looking ahead to the future, Naqvi is looking at Tunney’s Pasture and Confederation Heights – two other federally-owned pieces of land – that could include a combined 20,000 new homes when fully built out. 

Katie Burkholder-Harris, executive director of Alliance to End Homelessness, told the Lookout she is happy to see non-market affordable housing being built in Ottawa. 

“My only wish is that all of it was non-market, which I know is not necessarily going to happen,” she said. “I think we are in a state right now where the housing crisis is so severe that unless we are really focused on mission-driven housing, we are not going to get the level of affordability we need in communities.” 

Burkholder-Harris said a big discrepancy has been an income-based definition of affordability versus a market-based definition. 

“Market-based is 80 per cent of average market rent. In Canada it’s around $2,200 nationally, so it's kind of useless,” said Burkholder-Harris. “It does not tell what is meeting people's needs. Whereas the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says 30 per cent of whatever your income is before tax is what is considered affordable.”

The Ontario government also made their own housing announcement on Monday, stating the province is working with the City to invest nearly $10 million into a new Habitat for Humanity housing project at 40 Beechcliffe Street, near the intersection of Woodroffe Avenue and Knoxdale Road.

In a press release, the province said prices “will be set to reflect prices home buyers can afford.” The 33 modular homes will be “designed for families” and will include between three and four bedrooms. The homes also will require no down payments, and mortgage payments will be determined according to household income “to further remove barriers to ownership”, the news release said.

The homes will be built by Caivan, the same developer who displayed their modular homes during Carney's Build Canada Homes announcement in September. 

After speculation began that federal public servants would be ordered back to the office five times a week, Carney said on Monday the government would be speaking with unions over the next several weeks.

“We will come to a sharper view on it over the course of the next several weeks and there will likely be different levels of return, depending on seniority, depending on role, and, obviously, depending on capacity,” Carney said during a fireside chat with Mayor Sutcliffe.

“I’m a huge fan of the public service. We need the public service at this critical time, and we need public servants to have all the tools, including offices and workspaces, that make their jobs as interesting, as impactful as possible.”

Carney did not exactly say whether or not the rumours were true. 

Sharon DeSousa, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), told CTV she was “shocked” to hear the prime minister make such an announcement at a private event before notifying workers or their unions. 

The federal budget proposes the elimination of 28,000 more positions that would help achieve $60 billion in savings by 2029. Early retirement notices have been distributed to 68,000 public servants, and more than 200 employees at Natural Resources Canada received warnings that their jobs could be lost. 

At the breakfast on Monday, it was announced that $1.2 million would be invested in a new substance abuse pilot project by the city and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

Sutcliffe said “Ottawa is facing a toxic drug crisis that requires urgent coordinated action,” noting the project's aim is to direct more people away from harmful drug use and toward cultural and recreation services in safe spaces. It also hopes to improve rapid responses when toxic drugs are detected in the community.

Carney also said Canada will bid to host the 2028 La Francophonie Summit in the Ottawa-Gatineau area for the group's roughly 90 member states and observers. Canada has hosted the summit before in 2008.