![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/socast-superdesk/media/2021081016088/6112a539023d16089dbce694jpeg.jpg)
Canada’s housing strategy having ‘limited’ impact on housing need, PBO says
OTTAWA — Parliament’s budget watchdog says the government is falling short of its aim to vastly expand Canada’s affordable housing stock despite a spending ramp-up in the billions.
In a report published this morning, budget officer Yves Giroux says Ottawa topped up expenditures on its national housing strategy by nearly one quarter for an average of $3.7 billion annually over the past three years.
But he says expired community housing deals with the provinces, a shift toward pricier affordable homes and program lags at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation have “limited the impact” of the Liberal government’s plan.
Since 2018 the CMHC, which oversees the bulk of the three-year-old strategy, spent less than half of the $1.2 billion allocated for two key initiatives: the National Housing Co-Investment Fund and the Rental Construction Financing Initiative.