OTTAWA — The federal cabinet unveiled a sweeping infrastructure investment package Tuesday that the government is calling the most substantial public-works commitment since the postwar reconstruction era.
The announcement, which Prime Minister Renée Chartrand made in a nationally televised address from the Centre Block, puts $48.2 billion toward affordable housing construction, intercity rail upgrades, and rural broadband expansion over seven years.
"This is not a plan for the government," Chartrand said. "This is a plan for the Canadians who cannot afford to rent in the city where they work, and the farmers who cannot sell what they grow because there is no broadband to run the equipment their neighbours have been using for a decade."
The package passed the House with a margin of 189 to 143, with seventeen opposition members crossing the floor — a development that prompted immediate recriminations within the Official Opposition caucus.
Housing allocation draws scrutiny
The largest single envelope — $22.4 billion over five years — targets new housing supply, with the federal government offering forgivable loans to municipalities that fast-track zoning approvals for higher-density construction near transit corridors.
Critics argued the housing component relied too heavily on municipal cooperation and failed to address land speculation directly. "The problem is not that we cannot build," said Dr. Amara Singh, an economist at the University of Toronto. "The problem is that we build profitably where it is profitable to build, not where people need to live."
The government disputes that framing, pointing to a companion measure that would extend the existing vacant-homes tax to properties held by numbered companies and trusts.