go through Craig Lord
Kevin Lee, CEO of the Canadian Housing Builders Association, said in Ottawa on Tuesday that U.S. tariffs on Canada would “silence” the industry.
But he said the economic slowdown associated with the impact of tariffs could hinder the national housing market, dragging down the start of housing.
Consumer confidence has taken a hit after weeks of Donald Trump threatening tariffs on Canadian exports.
He said fears that tariff-related job insecurity could filter into the housing market, investment demand was chilling and limiting hopes of a rebound this spring.
“We still have a slow market despite lower interest rates and we hope that this will continue to worsen as the trade war continues,” Lee said.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said Tuesday that the construction industry is an industry that Trump “uncontrollable in Canada.” He said the impact of the trade war should be used to exploit it.
He told Ottawa reporters that Canada should reduce its sales tax and remove the traditional tape festival on new buildings to “release the country’s largest ever home building boom.”
Li also said Friday that reducing the GST burden on new homes would help offset the impact of tariffs on builders.
Canada responded to Trump’s trade Salworth, whose retaliatory tariffs target $30 billion worth of U.S. goods, with billions of dollars going to take place in three weeks.
Lee said that if these retaliatory tariffs hit key building materials from the United States, they could increase the cost of builders.
Lee said the CHBA has asked the federal government to limit the scope of anti-election campaigns to building materials with full skirts, or to focus on products that builders are more likely to source outside the United States.
Trump’s tariffs arrived that morning, and CHBA released its third annual municipal benchmark study, which tracked efforts to reduce housing barriers across Canada.
Ontario and British Columbia cities are marked as the worst offenders in postponing new home building approvals and failing to reduce expensive development costs.
While reducing these barriers is key to addressing Canada’s housing shortage, municipalities may also “more than offset” the higher construction costs associated with tariffs by reducing development costs and speeding up approvals, Lee said.
CHBA’s latest municipal benchmark study provides a snapshot of the entire Canadian development process for May 2024 and does not analyze the impact of the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund, aiming to speed up local construction.
Lee told reporters Tuesday that the CHBA has seen “conspicuous changes” in the development process of some municipalities, such as eliminating restrictive zoning due to the fund.
This report by Canadian media was first released on March 4, 2025.
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Last modified: March 4, 2025
