Key Takeaways
- Ministers commit to advancing new housing deals.
- Budget 2026 puts $44.7B over 11 years into housing.
- Next meeting: spring 2027.
Ministers Set a Spring Deadline for New Housing Deals
Federal, provincial and territorial housing ministers met in Toronto on November 13 and committed to advancing negotiations on renewed bilateral housing agreements ahead of the Spring Economic Update 2027 — before the current agreements expire in 2027-28.
The meeting, co-chaired by federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson and Ontario's Rob Flack, put Budget 2026's housing money at the centre: $44.7 billion over 11 years to expand non-market housing and, in the government's words, put Canada on a path toward ending homelessness.
The money on the table
Alongside the $44.7 billion, ministers highlighted the renewal of two flagship programs: the Canada Housing Benefit, at $5.6 billion over 10 years, and Reaching Home, the homelessness strategy, at $6.5 billion over 10 years. The communiqué also points to $5 billion for a new Integrated Supports Fund and $10 billion more for supportive and transitional housing.
Ministers directed senior officials to build a workplan for finalizing the bilateral deals — including preserving existing non-market housing delivered through the Canada Community Housing Initiative — and agreed to meet again in spring 2027.
Two wrinkles sat under the consensus: British Columbia's minister did not take part in the communiqué because of the province's recent election, and Québec restated that it expects its fair share of federal housing money "quickly and without conditions."
"Our investments in Budget 2026 give us an important opportunity to accelerate progress towards ending homelessness in 10 years," Robertson said.
The Twikup Take
The communiqué contains no housing-start targets and no unit counts — the real test is whether the spring negotiations produce signed agreements with numbers attached. Until then, this is a deadline, not a result.
Image: Illustrative image.