Our province is growing at a record pace. While we are building more homes than ever, supply simply cannot keep up with demand. To ensure the next generation isn’t priced out, the Unlock Housing campaign is building a clear roadmap to housing affordability. We are driving the solutions we need: faster approvals, less red tape, and smarter building to reduce costs and make the dream of homeownership a reality again.
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It takes twice as long to build a home today as it did in 2005. Why? Because municipal approval processes have become a tangled web of inconsistent rules and last-minute changes. We need legislation that mandates upfront clarity on requirements and prevents municipalities from creating policies in areas of provincial or federal jurisdiction.
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New communities pay for their own roads, pipes, and sewers. They also fund offsite infrastructure and public facilities needed to support growth through off-site levies (development charges). However, a lack of firm rules has allowed oversized infrastructure alongside "gold-plated" community centers and firehalls. These costs fall on new home buyers and erode affordability. We need stricter accountability to ensure levies are used for essential needs, keeping lot prices fair for homebuyers.
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Why should a standard home that follows every rule wait months for a green light? We’re calling for an ‘Automatic Yes’ for low-risk projects like single-family homes and townhouses. By removing the redundant development permit for compliant designs, we can stop the paper-pushing, free up municipal staff for complex city planning, and get shovels in the ground faster
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Environmental stewardship is a priority, but the current system of conflicting assessments and duplicate rules is broken. We need one clear set of provincial definitions for environmental protection. By eliminating regulatory overlap, we can ensure high environmental standards while removing the unnecessary delays that drive up the cost of housing.
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A home must be two things: safe and affordable. Right now, new national building codes are adding expensive requirements without checking if the extra cost is actually worth it for homeowners. We believe the Building Code’s first job is life and safety. But after that, affordability must be a priority. We need to ensure that new regulations don't accidentally price the next generation of Albertans out of the market.
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Alberta is leading the country in construction innovation. Through the new Construction Codes Working Group, industry and government are collaborating to streamline the adoption of new technologies and ensuring safety codes are interpreted consistently across the province. This reduces red tape and encourages smarter building methods.
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The federal government can immediately boost housing attainability by pulling two levers: modernizing the mortgage stress test and removing the GST on all new homes under $1 million. These changes would level the playing field between new and resale homes and help more Canadians qualify for a mortgage.
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