Canada is grappling with a housing crisis and both senior levels of government are looking for targets to blame and trying to produce instant solutions. On Monday Immigration Minister Mark Miller announced a decision to reduce the number of foreign student work visas for the students attending colleges and universities by 35% to 364,000. Post graduate working on their Masters or Doctorate programs will not be impacted. The majority of foreign student graduates apply to live in Canada.
This year almost one million foreign students are registered in private colleges, universities, colleges, and trade schools in Canada.
Part of the rationale for the reduction in students is an argument that they are driving up the costs of rent and new homes in Canada. The argument includes that those students are taking up housing. In 2023 Canada accepted one million immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers into our nation. That too has driven up housing costs across Canada and primarily in our more urban centers.
The downside to that argument is that Canada will require 75,000 construction workers annually for the next 10 years to simply replace retiring workers. To meet demand for new construction those numbers will certainly have to double. That is only one area that Canada needs skilled workers. There are hundreds of other trades requiring skilled workers. In 2024 we do not have enough skilled workers to build the homes we need.
On Monday, Premier Ford announced $1.2 billion from the Building Faster Fund to be made available to small rural, northern, and indigenous communities to accelerate new home construction. The fund can be used to develop infrastructure in communities to accommodate new housing. The federal government, in its new policy that promotes higher density housing and mixed-use housing in residential areas has earmarked billions for housing. Minister of Housing Sean Fraser has told cities and towns that it will only be made available to communities who adopt less rigid planning restrictions. Several cities have already received approval for financial support.
All of this is grand, with the senior levels of government putting up funds. But those funds will not be useful without private sector investment. Homes, condominiums, can only begin construction if owners put up the financing to have the homes built. Apartments will only be built if those developers can find potential renters to sign pre-construction leases. And with financing in place, the contractors will have to find qualified trades people to build those homes, apartments, and rental units.
Our housing shortage and housing costs across Canada is a multi-faceted problems. It will not be fixed with the waving of a wand as our politicians would like us to believe. All levels of government will need to be involved and much of that will begin neighborhood by neighborhood.
