Construction industry president praises Liberal cost cuts, opposes public homebuilding agency

David Wilkes from Building Industry and Land Development Association weighs in on the federal government’s plan to build more houses across Canada.

Construction industry representative Dave Wilkes says the Liberals’ housing plan brings much-needed relief on development charges, but that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to get the federal government into the homebuilding business is a bridge too far.

“We don’t think a public builder is necessary,” he told CTV Your Morning in an interview Friday.

“The shortage that we’ve experienced is not because of lack of people and ability to build housing; we think it’s because of some of the constraints that are in place to get that housing brought to market.”

Among Liberals’ campaign promises is Build Canada Homes, a new program that would act as a developer for affordable housing and provide financing to builders. Carney has promised to double Canada’s homebuilding rate to 500,000 per year, over the next decade.

Wilkes, who is president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), says the government should instead focus on assisting the industry’s private developers.

“We share the commitment that the federal government has to get more housing built,” he said. “The private sector should be partnering with the federal government, and other levels of government, to get housing built. That is the focus.”

Wilkes points to allocating federal lands, providing infrastructure and removing costs and barriers to building as key to the government’s end of that partnership.

Last year, the Liberals under former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced measures to make public land available for building affordable housing, including Canada Post properties, former military bases and federal office buildings.

The Carney Liberals have promised to work with provincial, territorial and municipal governments to slash development charges in half on multi-unit homes, alongside offering new tax incentives, streamlining application approvals, providing pre-approved housing designs and simplifying the Building Code.

Wilkes says lowering development charges is a “step in the right direction” on a key barrier to build.

“The major challenge that our industry is finding in delivering new homes for Canadians is the cost to build,” he told Your Morning. “We welcome that focus on reducing what are called ‘development charges,’ or taxes that are put on new homes.”

Also highlighted in the Liberal plan: eliminating GST for first-time homebuyers on units valued $1 million or less. It’s a policy move Wilkes says was “long overdue,” but that, like the development charge breaks, remains too restrictive in terms of eligibility.

He would prefer to see development-charge cuts apply to all forms of homes, not just multi-unit buildings, and that those cuts remain permanent. When it comes to GST, Wilkes says the million-dollar cut-off “doesn’t make sense for large urban areas.”

“When we look at the (Greater Toronto Area), the average selling price is about $1.5 million, so it really doesn’t apply in those areas, where costs are higher than that million dollars,” he said.

He also suggests that the break should apply to all buyers of new homes, not just those in the market for the first time.

“First-time homebuyers make up a very small portion of new home buyers,” said Wilkes.

Beyond individual tweaks to policy, he says there is also need for a “culture change,” when it comes to homebuilding.

“We’re beginning to see that, where people are looking to understand that we need to speed through approvals,” he said.

“We need to get product to the market.”

You can watch the full interview with BILD CEO Dave Wilkes in the video player at the top of this article.