By Jeremy Davis
Last week, Members and staff representing Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board, including 2024-2025 President, Daphne Shepherd, and Past-President Rena Prefontaine, joined REALTORS® from across the country for the Canadian Real Estate Association’s (CREA) annual Political Action Committee (PAC) conference or PAC Days 2024 in Ottawa, ON.
PAC Days is a high-impact annual event created by the Canadian Real Estate Association that includes real estate boards and associations and REALTORS® who advocate for change to grow and develop the real estate industry. REALTORS® meet with municipal and civic politicians and other leaders to discuss creative solutions and policies for homeowners and aspiring homeowners because they are frontline when it comes to helping people buy and sell real estate, and take the responsibility of building place-making projects and community development to heart.
PAC Days included multiple days of meetings in a conference-style setting where attendees heard from experts on housing policy, political journalists, prominent current and former politicians, and political party insiders. The most important and impactful part of PAC Days were the face-to-face meetings with Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Hill.
Members and staff of the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board, together with the Manitoba Real Estate Association and Brandon Area REALTORS®, met with five Members of Parliament including James Bezan – Selkirk/Interlake/Eastman, Terry Duguid – Winnipeg South, Branden Leslie – Portage/Lisgar, Marty Morantz – Charleswood/St. James/Assiniboia/Headingley, and Ted Falk – Provencher, to advocate on CREA’s three key REALTOR® recommendations:
1. Stimulate supply across the housing continuum by embracing innovation through offsite construction technologies.
CREA recommends stimulating offsite construction technologies through various funding streams that allow the industry to scale up, including incentives under the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) and the new Homebuilding Technology and Innovation Fund, to improve supply across the entire housing continuum.
Given the housing shortage in Canada, rapid construction should be a priority in resolving the housing crisis. Offsite construction technologies offer numerous advantages over traditional methods, particularly in efficiency, and should be supported as the industry scales up. Canada’s housing crisis could benefit from government support for offsite construction technologies, including mass timber, panelization, and modular home construction. Once scaled, the mass adoption of these innovative and sustainable building practices will help build supply across the housing continuum faster and improve housing affordability.
Offsite construction technologies offer two crucial benefits over traditional construction:
• They are 20% to 50% faster to complete and can help meet the need to build 5.8 million units by 2030.
• High operating and capital cost requirements of manufacturing facilities would decrease as the industry reaches scale, and the per unit costs may be lower than traditional housing units.
2. Establish a permanent mechanism to collaborate and coordinate housing policy and development, such as a national housing secretariat.
CREA recommends the establishment of a permanent mechanism that brings together all levels of government with housing stakeholders. This would help coordinate housing policy and development across the housing continuum and address the housing crisis through an inclusive, holistic approach that emphasizes collaboration and innovation. This could take the form of a permanent national housing roundtable or a national housing secretariat.
Given the complexity and scale of Canada’s housing crisis, it should be a national priority, with an all-hands-on-deck, whole-of-government approach. The lack of coordination and collaboration between all levels of government is further exacerbating the housing crisis. Addressing our housing crisis requires a permanent mechanism to facilitate a long-term, ongoing, multi-faceted, inclusive, and collaborative approach to substantially increase the supply of housing across the continuum.
3. HST/GST relief for non-profit affordable ownership housing.
CREA recommends the federal government extend the current HST/GST relief for purpose-built rental to include non-profit affordable ownership housing.
Non-profits like Habitat for Humanity — who play a vital role in providing affordable homeownership for vulnerable working families — are still subject to HST/GST. This tax burden hinders its ability to maximize its impact. Habitat for Humanity estimates if HST/GST relief were extended, it could build 13 additional homes for every 100 it currently delivers, significantly expanding its capacity to address the affordable housing crisis in Canada.
Implementing the proposed recommendations will not only alleviate housing pressures but also foster a more robust and resilient housing market for all Canadians.
REALTORS® bring expert knowledge in understanding local real estate market conditions and consumer homeownership needs and trends. REALTORS® are the most suited to sharing pertinent information around housing policy and advocating for creative solutions to increase housing supply, address current housing challenges, and enable access to safe, stable, and affordable housing options.
As we navigate the challenges and opportunities in today’s housing market, the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board will remain committed to advocating on behalf of the real estate industry through engagement with government and local stakeholders while aligning local priorities with national housing strategies. Together, we’re focused on contributing meaningful recommendations that address the housing crisis and support the needs of our community.
Jeremy Davis is the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board’s Director External Relations & Market Intelligence.