On March 5th, 2024, an independent Task Force for Housing & Climate released a Blueprint for More and Better Housing. Many of the recommendations align with the policy reforms that UDI and others have raised with all levels of government.

The Task Force was funded by several foundations and included “… former elected officials, mayors and chief planners, Indigenous leaders, designers, builders and developers, affordability advocates, and finance and insurance experts.” It was also supported by several university research partners.

Their objective was to determine how to deliver the 5.8 million homes CMHC calculated are needed by 2030 “… to restore housing affordability.” Other goals included making the new housing low-carbon and resilient. In the comprehensive Report, there are ten recommendations, and under them are 50 policy actions for the Federal Government, another 50 for the provinces, and 40 for municipalities. UDI is supportive of many of them, including:

• Increasing Federal support for the delivery of infrastructure, transit and parks needed for development through a dedicated fund, as well as linking Federal funding to immigration and non-permanent resident growth in regions;
• Tying “… all federal infrastructure, transit, and housing funding to provincial and municipal adoption of pro-density legalization reforms …;”
• Updating the GST rebate to reflect current new home prices;
• Enabling greater density in existing communities by removing unit caps and parking minimums.
• Supporting greater as-of-right densities near transit and facilitating the use of CMHC pre-approved housing designs.
• Establishing housing targets for local governments with incentives for surpassing the targets as well as offering funding to increase municipal capacity including for e-permitting initiatives and more training for planning and building department staff;
• Incentives for rental construction, including -

• Senior governments providing loan guarantees for rental (and affordable housing) projects;
• Improving the “… underwriting rules for both the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) and Apartment Construction Loan Program (ACLP) to reflect market conditions better;”

• Improvements in Capital Cost Allowance rules;
• Providing “… exceptions to purpose-built rental developers of principal business corporation, EIFEL, and partnership at-risk rules;”
• Eliminating the PST; and
• Provincial tax credits/exemptions;

• Incentives for affordable housing including -

• Requiring local governments to waive development charges on all forms of affordable housing guaranteed to be affordable for 40 years;
• Introducing a tax credit program to incentivize affordable purpose-built rental housing that would be like the U.S. Low-Income Housing Tax Credit;
• Establishing “… an affordable housing tax credit for developers that invest equity in community purpose-built rental housing projects;”

• Using tax incentives, investment funds, procurement strategies and incentives to accelerate “… mass timber and low-carbon concrete to panelization and other factory-built housing approaches;”
• The creation of national workforce and immigration strategy for housing;
• Better mapping of hazard areas that would be made publicly available;’ and
• Local governments waiving “… office space requirements in all downtown building conversions and re-developments,” as well as looking “… at underused and strategically located employment lands for mixed-uses, including housing;” among others.

There are many more policy actions recommended in the full report that highlight the need for decisive action to support both housing supply and Climate Action. These recommendations were developed at a national level, and the Province of British Columbia and many B.C. municipalities have already undertaken many of the policy actions identified.