Federal government lays the foundation to change how Canada builds homes

The Government of Canada announced consultations that will begin in early January 2024 on a housing design catalogue initiative, building on the work already being done to address the challenges facing the housing sector.

This new initiative will help accelerate the delivery of homes by standardizing housing designs, starting with low-rise construction. It will explore a potential catalogue to support higher density construction, such as mid-rise buildings, and different forms of housing construction, such as modular and prefabricated homes. The government will also look at ways to support municipalities, provinces and territories looking to implement their own housing design catalogues.

“In order to build more homes faster, we need to change how we build homes in Canada. We are going to take the idea of a housing catalogue which we used the last time Canada faced a housing crisis, and bring it into the 21^st century. This is going to help accelerate future developments, and tap into new and innovative construction methods that will make a real difference in building communities across Canada,” said Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities.

Through these consultations, the government will engage with partners and stakeholders across the housing sector to seek their input and expertise.