The legislation seeks to establish a target for the completion of new homes in Canada’s largest cities — Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa — that increases by 15 per cent every year and is tied to federal infrastructure funding allocated to them based on that target.

It provides a mathematical formula based on the number of new housing units in a “high-cost city” completed in the preceding fiscal year, in comparison to 2023 levels.

The federal government would reserve the right to adjust infrastructure funding should unforeseen circumstances — such as a national disaster, an economic recession, a war, or act of terrorism — prevent those cities from reaching their number of new housing units for that given year.

In addition to those building bonuses, all municipalities could also share a pot of money totalling $100 million, but only if they “greatly exceed housing targets,” according to the bill.

It also requires housing to be near public transit, specifying that federal transit funding provided to certain cities would be “held in trust” until “high-density residential housing is substantially occupied on available land around federally funded transit projects’ stations.”

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