By Craig Lord
Canadian Dwelling Builders’ Affiliation CEO Kevin Lee stated in Ottawa on Tuesday that the U.S. tariffs on Canada could have a “muted” impression on the trade on their very own.
However he stated an anticipated slowdown within the financial system tied to tariff impacts might maintain the nationwide housing market again, dragging down housing begins.
Lee stated that, after weeks of President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on Canadian exports, client confidence is already taking a success.
He stated fears about job insecurity tied to tariffs are seemingly filtering into the housing market, chilling funding demand and limiting hopes for a rebound this spring.
“We nonetheless have a little bit of a gradual market even though rates of interest are coming down and we might anticipate that’ll proceed to worsen because the commerce struggle continues, if it does,” Lee stated.
Conservative chief Pierre Poilievre stated Tuesday that the development sector is one trade Trump “doesn’t management in Canada.” He stated it needs to be leveraged towards the impression of the commerce struggle.
He informed reporters in Ottawa that Canada ought to chop gross sales tax and take away purple tape on new development to “unleash the most important homebuilding increase this nation has ever seen.”
Lee additionally stated Friday that lowering the GST burden on new properties would assist to offset the impression of tariffs on builders.
Canada has responded to Trump’s commerce salvos with retaliatory tariffs focusing on $30 billion value of U.S. items, with billions extra in counter-tariffs set to observe in three weeks.
Lee stated that if these retaliatory tariffs hit crucial development supplies coming from the U.S., they may drive up prices for builders.
The CHBA has requested the federal authorities to restrict the scope of counter-tariffs to both skirt development supplies completely or concentrate on merchandise that builders can extra simply supply outdoors the U.S., Lee stated.
Trump’s tariffs arrived the identical morning the CHBA launched its third annual Municipal Benchmarking Examine, which tracks efforts to cut back homebuilding boundaries throughout Canada.
Cities in Ontario and British Columbia have been tagged because the worst offenders in the case of delaying new house development approvals and failing to cut back expensive growth expenses.
Lee stated that whereas lowering these boundaries is vital to addressing Canada’s housing scarcity in the long term, municipalities might additionally “greater than offset” greater development prices tied to tariffs by reducing growth expenses and rushing up approvals.
CHBA’s newest Municipal Benchmarking Examine provided a snapshot of growth processes throughout Canada as much as Might 2024, and doesn’t analyze the impacts of the federal authorities’s Housing Accelerator Fund geared toward rushing up the tempo of native constructing.
Lee informed reporters Tuesday that the CHBA has seen “fairly dramatic adjustments” in some municipalities’ growth procedures, such because the elimination of restrictive zoning, on account of the fund.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed March 4, 2025.
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Final modified: March 4, 2025
