Federal Budget Falls Short on Support for Homeownership  

CHBA has expressed deep concern regarding the 2025 Federal Budget. The Budget’s focus was weak on new policies and programs to help the struggling market-rate home building sector. The budget missed the mark on ways to support homeownership and affordability, for example by not expanding GST relief to all buyers of new homes. The government also seemingly retreated from its commitment to work with municipalities to reduce development taxes by 50 percent. CHBA CEO Kevin Lee was invited to attend the stakeholder lock-up where he got an advance, embargoed copy of the budget and the budget speech delivered by the Finance Minister, and he immediately dialogued with political and public service officials to give feedback on the documents and the need for more action asap. CHBA emailed all members an at-a-glance summary of housing measures and held a post-budget webinar to break down the various elements of the budget and their impact on the sector.

CHBA CEO Kevin Lee Testifies on Barriers to Creation of Housing   

CHBA CEO Kevin Lee was invited to testify before the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance. The committee has commenced a study to examine and report on federal programs and initiatives to support the creation of housing. Speaking on behalf of CHBA’s 8,500 builder, developer, and renovator members, Lee provided a comprehensive overview of the housing continuum and how the deterioration of market-rate affordability for homeownership has put pressure on both the rental and social housing components of the continuum. Describing the current challenges facing the industry, Lee highlighted CHBA’s recent Q3 HMI results showing how the lack of consumer confidence, increased construction costs and punitive taxation at all levels of government has resulted in record lows for housing starts prospects for all forms of housing for ownership. Lee also emphasized the need for government housing policy beyond Build Canada Homes (BCH) as the number of homes to be built under BCH, which will focus on government-supported housing, is less than one per cent of the 500,000 units of all housing types that the government says needs to be built each year. Please visit CHBA’s website to watch Lee’s opening statement and the expansive question and answer period with Senators that ensued.

CHBA Participates in Immigration Roundtable with Federal Immigration Minister  

CHBA was invited to join Minister Lena Metlege Diab, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, for a roundtable to discuss the recently released 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan. The focus of the roundtable was to discuss various industry reactions to the plan and to provide sector-specific feedback to the Immigration Minister, the Deputy Minister, and various departmental officials. CHBA spoke to the very important differences between the residential construction sector and ICI construction and stated that current government policies do not take into account that there are separate labour needs for the two different parts of the sector. CHBA emphasized that residential construction needs robust immigration pathways for those who have the skills and aptitude, but who currently don’t qualify to come to Canada through the current immigration system. CHBA vigorously advocated for changes to the system to enhance category-based selection for Express Entry to support the specifics of the residential construction sector and to update the National Occupation Classification (NOC) system.

Q3 Housing Market Index (HMI) Hits Record Lows Again  

CHBA’s HMI, a much-needed leading indicator about the current and future health of the residential construction industry in Canada, once again has hit record lows. CHBA’s single-family Housing Market Index (HMI) reached a low of 23.3 out of 100, which is a decline of 4.1 points from this quarter last year. The multi-family HMI was 16.8, a decline of 11.7 points from a year ago and the first time either HMI score has fallen below a score of 20. The continued erosion of builder confidence can be attributed to continued trade uncertainty and lack of policy implementation. Regional differences in builder sentiment show that the markets that are in most dire need of large increases of housing supply continued to worsen. Pessimistic builder sentiment continues to be led by Ontario, where 64% of builders surveyed have had to layoff workers. The data coming from the HMI is being used and followed by the Bank of Canada, Statistics Canada, government policymakers, economists/analysts and media.

CHBA Launches Renovation Market Index (RMI) 

CHBA is introducing the Renovation Market Index to capture renovator confidence and market outlook across Canada. Building on the success of the Housing Market Index, which informs policymakers, economists, and media, the RMI will provide critical data to strengthen advocacy for the renovation sector. The index will measure sentiment on current and future conditions, as well as emerging issues like accessibility, resiliency, and AI. CHBA invites all companies involved in residential renovation, retrofit, repair, or maintenance to participate. It only takes a few minutes and helps advance industry priorities with government. Click here to take the Fall 2025 RMI Survey.

Training Rebates Available! Prepare your team for the higher energy tiers at significantly discounted prices    

If you’re thinking about upskilling your team, there’s no better time than now! $400 rebates or discounts are available for these courses: Net Zero Market Advantage, Advanced Building Science, Net Zero Builder, Net Zero Renovator, and Net Zero for Building Officials. Instructor-led courses are delivered by CHBA Qualified Net Zero Service Organizations and new e-learning options are available 24/7/365 through CHBA. These courses build competency and capacity to prepare the industry for future building codes. Funding provided by NRCan through CHBA’s “Enabling Tiered Codes – Implementation and Market Preparedness” project. Learn more about the incentives and register here.

CHBA Renovation Webinar Series: Renovating for High Performance - Hear from Boots on the Ground

NEXT WEBINARS:  NOV 27 | DEC 18 | JAN 14 

Leveraging subject matter experts and renovation project teams from across Canada, CHBA’s Towards Net Zero Renovations initiative has teamed up with Building Knowledge Canada to deliver this 5-part webinar series. Each webinar combines topic-relevant building science content with real case studies from our CHBA Renovator Members who are delivering projects that showcase high-performance upgrades, either working towards or meeting Net Zero or Net Zero Ready. With almost 1000 registrants for the first two webinars (“Airtightness and Air Barriers” and “Above Grade Walls”), these popular webinars are giving voice to our members to share learnings and approaches that work. Join us for “Heating and Cooling” on November 27, “Ventilation and IAQ” on December 18, and “Window Selection and Detailing” on January 14. Register and/or watch the recordings from previous webinars in the series here.