In a decisive victory on March 9, 2025, former central bank governor Mark Carney was elected as the new leader of Canada’s Liberal Party and Prime Minister-designate. The outcome was widely anticipated given Carney’s distinguished educational background and career achievements, which include his roles as Governor of the Bank of Canada and Governor of the Bank of England. Amid ongoing annexation threats and global economic uncertainty, Carney’s landslide win over his three esteemed competitors—including former Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland—highlights the Liberal’s preference for a leader with robust financial expertise and the ability to navigate tough tariff negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We didn’t ask for this fight,” Carney said in his acceptance speech. “But Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves. So, the Americans, they should make no mistake. In trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.”
On the campaign trail, Carney vowed to hold firm in his response to U.S. threats by keeping Canada’s retaliatory tariffs in place until the U.S. reverses its unjustified actions. He also spoke about the need to remove interprovincial trade barriers, invest heavily in infrastructure projects such as highways, rail, and ports, to improve Canada’s productivity and economic competitiveness, and to create a $6.5 billion aid package to mitigate the impact of the trade war on Canadian workers.
Meanwhile, housing development is an ongoing priority that is certain to be impacted by the tariff war. Material costs will go up, and housing starts will go down. But Carney says his party intends to “supercharge” Canada’s housing plan and take “aggressive action to ensure we can build enough homes for Canadians now.”
The Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations (CFAA)‘s interim president, Tony Irwin, issued the new federal leader a congratulatory message, adding that, “Our members continue to face significant economic pressures due to rising construction costs and expenses including property taxes, development charges, insurance, utilities, and maintenance. The ongoing trade war with the United States has created considerable uncertainty and has broader implications for Canada’s financial stability. As the leading national voice for the rental housing industry in Canada, CFAA is committed to working with the government to address these challenges and to ensure every Canadian has a place to call home.”
Rad Vucicevich, the director of development and construction at Medallion Corporation, echoed these concerns over the tariffs. With 1,100 rental units currently under construction and an additional 660 starting imminently, the company has already struggled through some challenging conditions here in Ontario to get shovels in the ground and projects underway. Nonetheless, Vucicevich acknowledged that certain programs introduced by the Liberals have been helpful.
“With Mark Carney coming in as the new leader of the Liberal Party, we are hopeful he will continue, or even expand, the Apartment Construction Loan Program, which has been great for encouraging affordable purpose-built rental projects across the country,” he said. “The biggest impact of the ongoing tariff rhetoric is the uncertainty it creates. The constant changes to what will be tariffed and by how much, doesn’t create an environment conducive to costing out projects. If we know something will be tariffed, we can plan accordingly for our near-term pipeline projects. We’re hopeful this situation gets resolved soon so we can continue delivering much-needed housing for Canadians, just as we have been for over 60 years.”
Carney’s “Team Canada” approach
The good news is, Canada’s housing crisis appears to be central to Carney’s plan. To minimize the impacts of tariffs and maintain a healthy pipeline, his vision includes using “all available tools” to remove barriers to construction and engage all levels of government in a “Team Canada” approach.
“We need strong leadership and a clear vision to confront the housing crisis head-on and build the strongest economy in the G7,” his government website asserts. “These policies, implemented now, will help determine Canada’s economic competitiveness and the quality of jobs for decades to come.”
Proposed tactics to spur housing development include:
- Doubling the pace of new housing construction over ten years.
“We have been building an average of roughly 227,000 homes per year over the past decade. We need to double this rate by improving the way we build homes, so that we can build 4 million homes over the next several years. We will catalyse enormous private investment to build new affordable homes for younger Canadians by aggressively unlocking private risk capital for new home construction.”
- Boosting innovation and productivity in housing construction.
“We will also invest in new technologies that speed up completion times and improve quality. We will incentivize scaling in construction to build more houses much more quickly, including supporting the Canadian prefabricated and modular housing industry and deploying new building materials and novel construction methods.”
- Growing the construction sector workforce.
“Accelerated home construction will require a corresponding investment in our skilled trade workforce. We will expand and accelerate training and apprenticeship programs for skilled trades so that we can build the homes Canadians need. We will seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a more competitive construction industry with great jobs in trades and manufacturing.”
- Cutting red tape, reducing fees, levies, and taxes.
“We need more incentives for investment and growth, not fewer. We will leverage new federal investments with provinces, territories, and municipalities to lower fees—such as development charges—that unfairly increase housing costs and create barriers to building new homes. We will provide new federal infrastructure funding to offset lost revenues from development charge reductions. We will expand the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund beyond just water and wastewater systems to include other critical infrastructure for growing communities’ needs.”
- Reducing housing bureaucracy, zoning restrictions, and design criteria.
“We can no longer tolerate restrictive, outdated zoning and permitting laws that block us from building more affordable places to live. We need more housing options in the places that make sense, including near transit. We will strengthen conditions and streamline federal programs so that provinces, territories, and municipalities can build more homes faster.”
