Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Transition Binder (2025)
Book 8: Reference Material on Signature Initiatives: Programs Placemat

• Programs placemat
  • Building more homes
  • Making it easier to own or rent a home
  • Helping Canadians who can't afford a home

Programs placemat

1. Building more homes

Apartment Construction Loan Program (CMHC)

Low-cost funding to support eligible borrowers during the most-risky phases of product development. ACLP supports both purpose-built residential rentals, including student and seniors' housing, and mixed use between residential rental and non-residential rental.

What's next?

• Ongoing – CMHC accepting applications for updated program.

Public Lands for Homes Plan (PSPC/HICC/CMHC)

The federal government has looked at all tools available to convert public lands to housing, including leasing and retaining ownership wherever possible, and acquiring lands from other orders of government for housing.

The Federal Lands Initiative supports the transfer of surplus federal lands and buildings to eligible proponents. This land is available at discounted to no cost to be developed or renovated for use as affordable, sustainable, accessible and socially inclusive housing.

There are currently 90 properties listed on the Canada Public Land Bank, representing the potential for construction of thousands of housing units.

What's next?

• Underway – review of the portfolio of federal lands.
• Ongoing – marketing new properties through the Federal Lands Initiative around the country.

Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program (CMHC)

Support for homeowners, who will be able to access low-interest loans up to $80,000 to add legal secondary suites to their homes. The new secondary suites can be for family use (e.g., aging parents, adult children), or as rental properties, to help increase density in communities.

What's next? 

• The CSSLP is expected to begin accepting applications in 2025-26.

Industrial Strategy for Homebuilding (HICC/ISED)

Strategy exploring opportunities for greater innovation in the homebuilding sector. Working together with industry to explore all essential inputs into homebuilding, including raw materials, supply chains, building techniques and financing, to determine barriers to adopting greater innovation to build homes faster, and at prices Canadians can afford.

Linkages will be made with ongoing federal work on bolstering the workforce needed to help address the housing crisis through skills and employment programming (e.g., Apprenticeship Service, Skilled Trades Awareness and Readiness Program to encourage Canadians to pursue careers in the skilled trades).

What's next?

• Upcoming – publication of What We Heard Report summarizing consultation.
• Engagement with other federal departments on policy proposals.
• Development of Industrial Strategy for Homebuilding.

Housing Design Catalogue (HICC/CMHC)

A housing design catalogue of up to 50 housing designs, which would be made publicly available online, to simplify and accelerate housing approvals and build more homes faster.

What's next?

• Ongoing – Engagement with PTs on technical aspects of catalogue and implementation.
• March 7, 2025 – Release of final renderings, floor plan layouts, and key building details as part of the Housing Design Catalogue.
• 2025 – Release of initial Housing Design Catalogue.

Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund (HICC)

A new fund to accelerate and improve the capacity of housing-enabling water, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste infrastructure.

What's next?

• Spring 2025 – Intake for the Direct Delivery stream for pressing infrastructure needs closed on Mar 31, 2025, with over 400 project applications received. The portal will remain open until May 20, 2025, for Indigenous applicants.
• Ongoing – Negotiations with remaining PTs on agreements under CHIF.

Housing Accelerator Fund (CMHC)

Funding for local governments to implement reforms that will increase the supply of housing (for example, changes to permitting and exclusionary zoning). In return for these changes to unlock housing, funding is provided to support the development of this new housing supply.

What's next?

• Spring 2025: Twenty-seven top-performing communities from the first round of the program received additional funding, resulting in an additional 2,219 permitted housing units over the next two years. For the second round of funding, agreements are in place with the recipient communities and will result in fast tracking nearly 12,000 new housing units over the next three years.

2. Making it easier to own or rent a home

Blueprints for a Renters' Bill of Rights and a Home Buyers' Bill of Rights (HICC)

In Fall 2024, the federal government released the Blueprints for a Renters’ Bill of Rights and a Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights to improve housing access and affordability.

What's next?

• Through the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, work with provinces and territories to endorse the principles of the Blueprints and advance measures that support fair and equitable renting and home buying systems.

Short-Term Rentals Enforcement Fund (HICC)

Funding for municipalities to help enforce regulations to limit short-term rentals.

What's next?

• Successful applicants were notified of the result of their application in early March 2025. Details of specific allocations will be published at a later date.
• Call for Proposals took place in December 2024 to January 2025.
• $36.2M in funding approved for 20 projects over 3 years.
• 17 municipal agreements finalized as of March 2025; remaining 3 expected in 2025-26.

3. Helping Canadians who can't afford a home

Reaching Home: Canada's Homelessness Strategy (HICC)

Community-based program providing funding to prevent and reduce homelessness, including funding to accelerate community-level homelessness reduction.

What's next?

Spring/Summer 2025

• Continued engagement with delivery partners as part of funding agreements.
• Share details of Homelessness Reduction Innovation Fund (HRIF) managed by Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) - First of five Calls for Proposals launched in March 2025.

Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative (HICC)

New cost-matched initiative to address the urgent issue of encampments and unsheltered homelessness, which is administered in collaboration with Provinces and Territories (PTs) and, in some cases, with municipalities directly. This initiative supports the deployment of Community Encampment Response Plans (CERPs).

What's next?

• Agreements have been reached with PTs and selected municipalities in Ontario and Saskatchewan.
• Publication of Community Encampment Response Plans (CERP) summaries to be continued.

Veteran Homelessness Program (HICC)

Rent supplements and wrap-around supports for Veterans experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness, as well as research and capacity-building projects.

What's next?

• 34 projects are underway. Results from the first year of funding will be reported in Spring 2025.

Affordable Housing Fund (CMHC)

Loans and contribution funding to better meet the needs of a range of affordable housing types such as shelters, transitional and supportive housing, mixed-used community housing, and the preservation and revitalization of existing units. Late in 2024, the program was enhanced to: 1) extend into 2029, 2) introduced Rapid Housing and Community Housing Sub-Streams, and 3) remove minimum requirements related to accessibility and energy efficiency for the Repair and Renewal Stream.

What's next?

• Ongoing – CMHC accepting applications for the enhanced program.

Co-operative Housing Development Program (CMHC)

Access forgivable loans along with low-interest repayable loans to build rental co-operative housing. In March 2025, CMHC announced that through the first application window, $423 million in funding has been allocated to support eight new co-ops, creating a total of 837 new homes.

What's next?

• CMHC will launch another call for proposals later in 2025/2026.

Canada Rental Protection Fund (HICC/CMHC)

$1.5 billion to one or more organizations that will be selected to leverage this federal funding to attract other sources of capital and help non-profits, co-ops and other community housing providers acquire buildings that are privately owned and keep them affordable over the long-term.

What's next?

• Spring-Summer 2025 – Call for applicants for selection of organization(s) to receive CRPF program funding closes May 21st after which Assessment Panel will evaluate applications.

Infrastructure initiatives

Canada Public Transit Fund (HICC)

Average of $3 billion annually starting in 2026-27 for public transit and active transportation infrastructure, delivered via:

• Ongoing Baseline Funding for qualifying transit systems, for state of good repair and routine system expansions.
• Long-term Metro-Region Agreements providing additional funding in major urban areas.
• Targeted intakes for evolving needs and priorities (e.g., active transportation).

Access to funding tied to actions to increase housing supply and affordability, where it makes sense.

What's next?

• Underway – Expression of Interest (EOI) intake for Metro-Region Agreements (no closing date). With EOI intake period closed for Baseline Funding and eligible recipients informed of their allocations, the program is proceeding to submission and approval of capital plan and signing of funding agreement.
• Feb/Apr 2025 – intake for the Capital stream of the Active Transportation Fund closes on Feb 26, 2025 (Apr 9, 2025, for Indigenous applicants).
• Mar/Apr 2025 – intake for Capital stream of the Rural Transit Solutions Fund closes on Mar 4, 2025 (Apr 8, 2025, for Indigenous applicants).

Climate Toolkit for Housing and Infrastructure (HICC)

New suite of open-access tools, resources and services to support communities in making climate-smart infrastructure decisions, through:

• Help Desk to help users understand HICC climate requirements, promote best practices, and direct users to relevant tools, data sources, and resources.
• Open-access, web-based Platform, ClimateInsight.ca, to provide easy access to climate-related resources, including new tools for geospatial visualization of climate, socio-economic and infrastructure datasets, hazard assessment and options identification.
• Roster of Climate and Infrastructure Experts, ClimateReadyCanada.ca, to help communities identify climate options that can strengthen their infrastructure projects.

What's next?

• The Toolkit is available online at Climate Toolkit for Housing and Infrastructure.

Canada Community-Building Fund (HICC)

A stable, predictable, and indexed source of funding provided to provinces and territories to flow to their communities. Annual funding of $2.4 billion allows local communities to make strategic investments in essential infrastructure (e.g., housing needs assessments, roads, public transit, water/wastewater).

What's next?

• Spring 2025 – continue to receive housing needs assessments (HNA) from communities 30,000+ (March 31 deadline, unless extension granted) and continue to work with territories to develop territorial HNAs).

Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (HICC)

Funding for green and accessible retrofits, repairs or upgrades of existing public community buildings and the construction of new community buildings.

What's next?

• Underway – assessment of third intake of project applications (closed Oct 16, 2024).

Canadian Infrastructure Council (HICC)

The Council is mandated to provide impartial, evidence-based research and analysis to improve infrastructure planning and decision-making at all levels of Government, primarily through national infrastructure assessments (NIA).

What's next?

• Dec 2024 – Council launched.
• First NIA focussing on core infrastructure for housing, including water/wastewater, solid waste and community mobility, and the impacts from population growth and climate change.
• Winter/spring 2025 – data collection, research and Council engagement with partners and stakeholders.
• First NIA delivered by summer/fall 2025.

Child Care Expansion Loan Program (HICC/CMHC/ESDC)

Low-cost loans and contributions to public and not-for-profit childcare providers to renovate/build more childcare.

What's next?

• The program is expected to launch in 2025-26.

Canada Infrastructure Bank

Crown corporation investing in revenue-generating infrastructure projects in five priority sectors: Clean Power, Green Infrastructure, Public Transit, Trade and Transportation and Broadband.

What's next?

• The CIB welcomes project discussions at any time and provides different types of support to projects: advisory services, project acceleration funding and low-cost project financing.