Prime Minister Mark Carney participates in an announcement for the new federal agency Build Canada Homes with Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson, in Ottawa, on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. The CEO of Caivan Homes said the homes at the announcement were prototype builds and that it wasn't meant to be misunderstood as a permanent housing development site. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

By The Canadian Press

Fact File: Claims government built fake homes for photo op misleading

Oct 2, 2025 | 9:54 AM

In September, the public announcement of the federal government’s Build Canada Homes agency sparked social media posts claiming a fake construction site with fake homes was used as a backdrop for the news conference, and that the project’s $13 billion budget meant each of the planned 4,000 homes would cost upwards of $3 million.

In fact, the builder of the modular homes said they are real and were not intended to be constructed permanently at the site of the announcement. It’s unclear how the entire $13 billion budget will be spent, but it isn’t funding just the 4,000 homes.

THE CLAIM

When the prime minister announced the launch of a federal agency that aims to boost housing construction, he did so against the backdrop of several under-construction modular homes.

Build Canada Homes will oversee plans to build 4,000 homes on six federally owned sites as part of its initial $13-billion budget, Prime Minister Mark Carney said at a press conference in Nepean on Sept. 14.

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On social media, some users claimed the government created a fake construction site with fake homes for the announcement because the modular homes weren’t fully finished and were removed from the site days later.

“Mark Carney CAUGHT Creating FAKE CONSTRUCTION SITE For a ‘Housing Announcement,'” reads the title of a Sept. 21 YouTube video with around 109,000 views.

“That was supposed to look like a new housing development going in and that it was going to be finished, people were going to be moving into it after they were finished, but then it was all torn down,” the video claimed.

Similar claims about the fake construction site, homes, or workers appeared on Facebook, TikTok and the X platform, formerly Twitter.

Other posts claimed the $13 billion budget worked out to around $3.2 million per home, criticizing construction costs.

THE FACTS

Video from the announcement shows Carney toured three under-construction modular homes built by Caivan Homes, but his comments from the press conference indicate they were never intended to stay.

“The two sets of homes behind me were manufactured in two days, assembled on site in one … We wanted to keep the townhouses open. We held back the workers from finishing it so you could see how things fit together,” Carney said.

“The one over there is being shipped to Nunavut,” he said of the third home.

Modular homes are produced in a factory but installed on-site. Modules refer to sections of the home that are constructed separately and then moved to a foundation and assembled.

The co-founder and CEO of Caivan Homes, Frank Cairo, said the government approached them with the intention of showing the “manufacturing potential” of modular homes through prototype builds.

“(Caivan) prototype builds all of our homes prior to mass production and this is what occurred on the Merivale site in Ottawa where the announcement occurred,” Cairo told The Canadian Press.

The prototypes Carney toured during the announcement are real homes, Cairo said, but it wasn’t meant to be misunderstood as a permanent housing development site.

He said one of the homes went to a family in Nunavut; the stacked townhouses were disassembled and are being reassembled on a project in east Ottawa.

“There was no added cost in doing this as it was synergized with our existing process,” Cairo said.

It’s not clear how the government plans to spend the entire $13-billion budget for Build Canada Homes.

However, claims the entire budget is earmarked for the 4,000 planned homes are misleading, because part of it is going to different programs that fall under the agency.

A press release notes the agency plans to launch a $1.5 billion rental protection fund. It also committed $1 billion to build supportive housing for people who are homeless, which includes “employment and health care supports” in collaboration with provincial, municipal, territorial and Indigenous governments.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2025.

Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press