Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser, second right, speaks during a news conference as Jean-Yves Duclos Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Communities, right, MP Darren Fisher and Mayor Mike Savage, left, look on in the Dartmouth area of the Halifax Regional Municipality on Sunday Aug. 25, 2024.Kelly Clark/The Canadian Press
The federal government has announced that military bases and a Montreal building once the headquarters of the National Film Board are among five properties that will soon welcome proposals from developers to convert them into affordable housing.
The sites are among 56 federal properties across the country included in a public land bank launched Sunday. Ottawa hopes developers will lease them long term as part of its plan to increase the supply of housing across the country.
The government is accepting proposals and expressions of interest by the end of the year to develop the five sites.
Ahead of a three-day Liberal cabinet retreat in Halifax, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said in an interview Sunday that he expected the initial five properties would allow for thousands of housing units subject to the plans crafted by interested builders and developers. He did not provide a specific figure.
“We believe, across the 56, that we could get into the tens of thousands,” he said. “I hesitate to put a benchmark out there just to avoid the possibility that it creates anything other than the highest possible expectation for those lands.”
Over all, the 56 properties constitute 305 hectares of land equivalent to about 2,000 hockey rinks, according to a housing department release.
In June, The Globe and Mail published the results of a months-long analysis that found 613 pieces of what has been described as lazy land in cities and towns across Canada – a collection of federal real estate large enough to create about 288,000 housing units for nearly 750,000 Canadians.
The Globe’s analysis also found 154 taller buildings close to housing that could be considered for residential conversions or development in their large parking lots.
For decades, Ottawa has either left this land underused, or quietly auctioned it off to the highest bidder to pay down debt and help balance budgets. But the government’s spring budget proposed putting homes on “every possible” site of federal real estate.
Mr. Fraser said that in coming months, additional properties will be added beyond the five announced Sunday. “This is not something we intend to sit on,” he said. “You should expect to see, over the course of the fall, additional properties listed on the public land bank.”
The disposal of federal land has also been a part of the housing strategy proposed by federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
However, Mr. Poilievre has said that a Conservative government would sell off 15 per cent of federally owned buildings, vacating land that could be used to build affordable homes.
In a statement issued Sunday, Conservative housing critic Scott Aitchison noted that it has taken Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nine years after he promised to build homes on federal land to actually identify a few parcels of land his government would build on.
“By their own admission, it will take years more to actually build anything on these proposed federal communes,” said Mr. Aitchison
Mr. Fraser was critical of the Conservative plan to sell land.
“We could have chosen what Mr. Poilievre is proposing, to launch a fire sale on publicly owned properties and just sell them off to the developers, who have the ability to pay the most,” Mr. Fraser said.
However, he said the problem is that there would be no way for the government to ensure developers commit to housing that would be widely affordable.
Mr. Fraser said he hopes people will examine the government’s plans.
“My message to people who are interested is actually look at what the government is proposing to do, look at what different politicians are proposing to do and make your own honest assessment,” he said.