Housing Minister Sean Fraser has announced the resurrection of a Second World War-era housing plan in a desperation play to boost home construction in Canada.

The program, initially run by Wartime Housing Ltd. during the late 1940s, will be modernized and feature a catalogue of pre-approved designs at the federal level.

Housing Minister says Canada needs to learn from the war era for housing solutions

“In many instances, these homes were being built in a period of about 36 hours, and we intend to take these lessons from our history books and bring them into the 21st century,” Fraser said on Tuesday. 

Fraser further said that consultations on the revamped program will begin in January, with the aim of making the designs available for developers by next fall. The blueprints include designs for multiplexes, mid-rise buildings, student housing, senior residences, and other residential properties.

“This will include garden suites and laneway homes and different kinds of houses that will solve the challenges that our communities are facing today.”

Fraser added, “We’re essentially trying to unclog the pipeline at every step of the way to create a much faster construction process using cost efficient, and labour efficient and energy-efficient designs that are going to allow us to build the kinds of homes that will solve the housing crisis more quickly and more cheaply without comprising on quality.”

Fraser also connected the initiative to the Housing Accelerator Fund, a $4-billion program launched in 2022 that aims to add at least 100,000 new homes nationwide over five years, but didn’t even have a project announced until September 2023.

BoC Deputy Governor links housing crisis with immigration policy

Last week, the Bank of Canada (BoC) Deputy Governor linked Canada’s housing crisis with the Trudeau Government’s immigration policy.

The admission comes as the Trudeau Liberals continue to pack in record-breaking immigrants on a yearly basis with no plans of slowing down.