Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-announces-new-federal-agency-build-affordable-housing-2025-09-14/
As a response to the housing crisis in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to establish a new agency called Build Canada Homes. The agency will work with private organizations to build homes with a price targeted toward low income families. The agency will be given C$13 billion ($9.39 billion) to begin constructing these affordable homes. This new agency will be a clap back from the brutal tariffs from the United States. Prime Minister Carney wishes to make it possible for Canada to rely on itself rather than a single trading partner like the U.S, which has implemented tariffs that hurt Canada’s budget.
With the new Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, there is a small refresh in the government’s objectives. Carney has begun to allocate more time and money to adapt to the tariffs put in place by the Trump Administration, rather than to participate in a trading war that would hurt both countries. I think that this standpoint is a really good place for Canada to be, because this will help them become less dependent on trading partners to provide for their country. The U.S faces a similar housing crisis as Canada, but maybe Canada’s new policy will attract attention from U.S lawmakers, if it is successful.
The two major stakeholders are the U.S and Canada. One way that Canada can make the most of this idea is to construct smaller houses with better qualities. I think that a big issue facing the U.S’s housing crisis is that people are greedy and want bigger houses. What Canada could do is create homes based off of English home designs. Such as town houses that share walls and aren’t too big. This would not only save money, but also set a new style that other contractors might lean toward. The U.S is in a good position while Canada tries to solve their housing crisis. The U.S can just watch and learn from what Canada is doing. They can see what things are going well and in what ways they can do better. I think this would be great to develop a plan to solve the housing crisis and homelessness in the U.S.
This relates to the IB themes of Peace and Conflict because Canada’s redirection of their economic attention turned from the trading war with the U.S, to its people’s needs. This decision avoided further conflict with the United States. Build Canada Homes also contributes to the themes of Development and Sustainability by providing a potential solution for the housing crisis and developing a more welcoming way of living.