Canadians Can't Afford Net Zero During Housing Crisis.
August 29, 2024
The federal government has released its Canada Green Buildings Strategy, a plan to reach net-zero emissions from the building sector by 2050. To attain that goal, renovators and contractors will need to achieve a retrofit rate for existing homes and buildings of three per cent a year.
The objective for new building construction is equally ambitious, with the aim to attain net-zero energy-ready buildings by 2030, which will require investing billions in green building technology.
Meanwhile, due to the fact all levels of government have declared we are in a housing crisis, new homebuilding targets have been raised significantly. The feds have set the goal of building 3.87 million new homes across Canada by 2031 to achieve affordability. The Ontario government has indicated that we need to get at least 1.5 million homes built by 2031.
Municipalities, like Toronto also have its own goals. Mayor Olivia Chow, for example, has pledged to reach 65,000 affordable and rent-controlled units by 2030. The city is even more determined than the feds, targeting community-wide greenhouse gas emissions to be net zero by 2040.
Amidst all of this, we are dealing with the effects of a changing climate, with hotter summers and milder winters, unprecedented wildfires ravaging our forests and intense rainfall causing floods. Which begs the question: How are we going to reach our housing targets while building greener and addressing climate change?
We’re already in a perfect storm. High interest rates and costs for materials and labour, exorbitant taxes, fees and levies and excessive red tape and bureaucracy are adding to the price of housing, so much so that people are leaving our cities because they can’t afford homes. Balance is the key.
It is critical that we make sure construction of new housing is not smothered by our green building and climate policies. We can not make building so expensive that people can not afford to buy homes. A University of Toronto study shed some valuable light on the issue. Data showed Canada can not simultaneously meet its targets for the quantity of new housing needed and emission reductions.
As the study clearly noted, the two goals appear to be at direct odds with one another if current construction practices continue.
To restore housing affordability, the study states that the industry would need to triple the rate of housing construction by 2030. For the industry to stay within its emissions budget, homes built in 2030 would have to produce 83 per cent fewer greenhouse gases during construction than those built in 2018.
The residential construction industry is already recognized as a leader in adopting more energy-efficient building practices, however you can’t just flick a switch and build greener homes – and hit the targets for new housing construction that have been set by governments. We could incorporate more energy-efficiency products into new homes, but it would add to the cost of new housing – and come at a time when housing price tags are already too high for many buyers.
The regulatory system is also so convoluted. New products would only add to the problem. Considering the time it takes to get a project approved, nobody in the industry wants to try anything new.
The situation gets even more complex with municipalities going off and creating their own green building standards which are in violation of the Ontario Building Code Act. We are supportive of actions to address climate change, but the municipal standards are often inconsistent. Municipalities can’t be allowed to continue to develop their own set of separate building standards.
They only gum up the development approval process and escalate construction costs.
The Ontario government needs to take action to ensure these municipal standards are rescinded. The municipalities have exceeded their authority under the Ontario Building Code. We recently sent a letter on the matter to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra, requesting that he take action.
By operating outside of the parameters of the Ontario Building Code, municipalities are creating yet another barrier to building new housing at a time when we are facing a serious crisis.Many youth have already left or will be leaving our cities and province because they can’t afford a place to live here. Adding more green building standards will only add to the cost of housing.
At a time when governments want the construction industry to build more housing, a more balanced approach to the problem is warranted – one that takes into account climate change and the need to build greener and adequately balance it with the need for new housing.
