Ottawa has secured more than CA$400 million from Canada’s new housing agency to accelerate the construction of 3,000 homes. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe announced the partnership on Monday, confirming the capital as a testing ground for Build Canada Homes, the $13‑billion federal agency launched with a mandate to develop public lands and drive mass‑timber construction.
The deal divides the 3,000 units into two streams. Wood Central understands that two thousand homes will rise on federal lands, beginning with the redevelopment of the former campus at 1495 Heron Road, while additional financing will unlock another 1,000 units from the city’s affordable housing pipeline. Addressing the Ottawa Board of Trade Mayor’s Breakfast, Carney told a business audience that “shovels will be in the ground next year.”
Wood Central understands that Heron Road, slated to deliver 1,100 units, has been designated a “Direct Build” project requiring bidders to use modern methods of construction such as prefabrication, modular building, and mass timber, with priority given to Canadian‑sourced materials, and with the focus on “Buy Canadian” and industrialised techniques expected to create opportunities for Ontario manufacturers and specialised trades while tightening the local supply chain for timber and modular components.
And whilst the federal sites will dominate the headlines, city officials point to the 1,000 units funded through Ottawa’s portfolio, which is expected to accelerate shovel‑ready projects through Ottawa Community Housing and its partners. Likely candidates include phases of Gladstone Village in Centretown and the Mosaïq Ottawa project, both central to the city’s intensification strategy. In exchange for federal cash, the city will waive development charges, permit fees, and property taxes for priority projects, a concession Sutcliffe says allows Ottawa to “lead the way” on housing.
Jason Burggraaf, the executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association, said the project’s scale underscored the challenge. “We need a lot of investment in affordable housing… but it also illustrates the amount of investment that’s needed from other levels of government to make housing affordable at all.”
In September, Carney described Build Canada Homes as “the world’s most ambitious public housing initiative,” pledging to use as much mass timber as possible to create an entirely new housing industry. The agency will combine federal funding, public land, regulatory support, and private‑sector incentives to accelerate homebuilding nationwide. The announcement builds on policies established under former prime minister Justin Trudeau to drive modular and mass‑timber construction, with Trudeau’s successor aiming to cut construction timelines by half, reduce costs by up to 20 per cent, and use as much wood fibre as possible in new housing projects.
To learn more about the $13 billion ‘Build Canada Homes’ agency, click here for Wood Central’s special feature. And to learn more about Carney’s plan to ‘buy and build’ with Canadian lumber and steel, click here for Wood Central’s story from last month.
