by Kevin Lockhart, Director, Buildings – Pembina Institute

Why long‑term retrofit planning belongs in Build Canada Homes

This past week saw the introduction of the Build Canada Homes Act. This legislation will establish Build Canada Homes (BCH) as a permanent Crown corporation, with a mandate to deliver new affordable housing and drive innovation and demand for made-in-Canada products and materials. Nonetheless, as the Pembina Institute’s Reframed Initiative has highlighted, retrofitting existing low-rise multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) is critical to maintaining and preserving Canada’s affordable housing stock.

With over 600,000 units of social housing in Canada, a large number of which need to be retrofitted every year, it’s clear that ensuring the long-term viability of these buildings is key to protecting housing affordability in existing buildings. In recognizing retrofits in the BCH mandate, both non-market and market-rate MURBs can benefit from improved supply chain coordination and innovative ways to reduce the high upfront costs and complexity of retrofits. More broadly, BCH can signal that both new and existing housing are part of a holistic, nation-building approach, and position retrofits as a public investment that is integral to both growing our housing supply and protecting affordability.

Alongside newly constructed housing, existing buildings have vast potential as a nation-building, made-in-Canada resource. Including a long-term plan for retrofits in BCH delivers access to an integrated prefabricated materials stream, spurs innovation in retrofit components and assemblies, and centralize labour and designs. All of which are needed to ensure both new and existing buildings meet their potential as a core component of Canada’s nation-building agenda.

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