Question Period Note: Conversion of federal properties to housing

The Canada Public Land Bank was launched in August 2024 to unlock public lands for housing; properties continue to be added to meet the deliverables outlined in Budget 2024 to support the Public Lands for Homes Plan.

• The Government of Canada is redoubling efforts in the face of Canada's housing crisis on several fronts and doing everything it can to create more housing and make more housing affordable for Canadians from coast to coast to coast
  • My department is committed to ensuring sound stewardship of our real property through the reduction of the office portfolio, and to delivering on the significant additional measures to unlock federal lands for housing announced in Budget 2024
  • These measures include reviewing the federal portfolio and identifying underutilized public lands as well as acquiring new lands, launching a new public land bank and mapping tool, and enhancing policies to facilitate leveraging public lands in support of housing and other community needs

If pressed on departmental activities:

• Public Services and Procurement Canada is accelerating and streamlining the disposal process to enable the redevelopment of surplus federal properties into housing. We are continuing to work with the Canada Lands Company and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to enable the construction of housing units
• Public Services and Procurement Canada, in close consultation with the Canada Lands Company and Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, is working on the development of a Federal Land Acquisition Program using the $500 million committed in Budget 2024 to acquire land from other orders of government to help spur housing

If pressed on the November 19, 2024, announcement:

• The Government of Canada continues to identify properties within its portfolio that have the potential for housing, and is actively adding them to the Canada Public Land Bank
• 83 federal properties have now been identified as being suitable to support housing. This list will continue to grow in the coming months, with further details on listed properties available soon

Public Services and Procurement Canada is the federal government’s administrator of real property and is responsible for approximately 6.9 million square meters of space across Canada. This includes the office portfolio, special purpose buildings, and other assets. About 6.2 million square meters is considered office space. Public Services and Procurement Canada is working to right-size, modernize and green the federal office portfolio, which will result in the disposal of assets that are no longer required.

In support of Budget 2024, Public Services and Procurement Canada:

• Is launching the new Public Lands Acquisition Fund to purchase land from other orders of government to help spur sustainable, mixed-market housing
• Collaborates with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation on the Federal Lands Initiative
  • For example, Public Services and Procurement Canada is currently facilitating discussions between the Kwilmu’kw Maw‑klusuaqn and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation to purchase the Marine house property located at 176 Portland Street, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, under the Federal Lands Initiative program for redevelopment as affordable housing, that would serve to satisfy expressed section 35 interests on this property
• Established a new Public Land Bank and geo-spatial mapping tool in collaboration with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada
• Collaborates with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Canada Lands Company, on the National Housing Strategy
• Is scaling-up Public Services and Procurement Canada’s centre of expertise on disposals
• Works on the disposal process of its assets that are declared surplus and continues to assess underutilized properties for housing development potential (including Canada Post properties)

Canada Lands Company is a self-financing, federal, Crown corporation specialized in real estate development and attractions management. By the end of March 2024, Canada Lands Company enabled the construction of more than 13,000 new homes since 2016. It is now on track to enable the construction of more than 29,200 new homes over the next five years and has a new minimum affordable housing target of 20 per cent across projects in its residential pipeline. Pending the approval of Canada Lands Company’s corporate plan, the new affordability requirement would apply where a municipal minimum requirement for affordable housing is lower or does not already exist.

• As of March 2024, Canada Lands Company had enabled the construction of more than 13,000 new homes since 2016
  • Canada Lands Company is on track to enable the construction of more than 29,200 new homes over the next five years
  • Budget 2024 allocated $500 million over five years for Public Services and Procurement Canada to purchase parcels of municipal, provincial, or territorial land to help spur housing
  • In August 2024, a new tool called the Canada Public Land Bank was launched with an initial 56 properties under the Public Lands for Homes Plan
  • As of November 19, 2024, there are 83 properties listed in the Canada Public Land Bank, representing a total of 430 hectares of land, which is the size of approximately 2,700 hockey rinks or almost 525 Canadian Football League football fields