Government Steps to the Fore on Affordable Housing

The Canadian government, along with provincial counterparts, is making affordable housing a priority. The Federal Government’s National Housing Strategy (NHS) has targeted the construction of up to 100,000 new affordable homes to be built in the coming decade, along with repairing or renewing up to 300,000 existing homes. New homes are to be built, in the NHS’s words, “sustainable, accessible mixed-income and mixed-use” as well as “close to transit, close to work, and close to public services.”

Of necessity, some of these will be multi-unit residential buildings, including in-fill developments (built on unused/under-used land such as parking lots or brownfields) or adaptive reuse developments (partial or complete repurposing of existing buildings). They will have a need for electronic access systems, foyer openings, and fire-rated openings for suites and other ingress/egress uses. In other words, there is an important role for our industry to play in life safety, security and accessibility.

While the NHS dates to 2019, there has been an increased push in the last year by senior-level governments to address what has been termed a crisis. As responsible members of Canadian society, we want to ensure these buildings will provide their users – residents and others – with safe, secure and accessible openings.