Internal DND documents show only 5% of planned military housing to be built this year


The Minister of Defense, Bill Blair, spent a part of Thursday promoting the plan of the liberal government of building 668 additional military housing units, of which internal documents show that only 36 will be completed this year.

In fact, according to an internal presentation of the Housing Authority of the Canadian Forces obtained by CBC News, they will pass two years before the program is activated in the gear and begin to deliver relief to soldiers, sailors and air crews in nine bases from all over the country.

Blair toured the base of the Canadian forces Borden north of Toronto on Thursday, where he opened a new accommodation installation for training recruits.

“The construction of 668 new housing units will help to house more military families in affordable houses near the bases of the whole country,” Blair said in a statement.

The Department of Defense “is helping to meet the housing needs of military personnel, while relieving housing demands in the surrounding communities,” said the statement on Thursday.

668 units for 2030

However, the internal documents, which were part of a presentation of January 25, show that the Defense Department expects to build 156 additional units, mostly low-height apartment buildings, in 2026-27, 204 in 2027-28 , 182 in 2028-29 and 90 in 2029-30.

Residential housing units (Rhus) are “prioritized for members in their first five years of service, compassionate publications, [those] return from [out of Canada] publications and [those] Published for a course or series of courses, “the presentation said.

In addition to building new homes, the Department of Defense undertakes to renew and rebuild some properties and buy other additional (189 units in Yellowknife and explore a potential association in Ottawa).

The liberal government announced last year that $ 1.4 billion would spend more than 20 years to improve military housing, one of several affordable initiatives.

A series of reports and studies of the Department of Internal Defense have indicated the lack of affordable homes as a great drag of morals in the army and is even blaming the constant wear rate in which some troops decide to leave instead of accepting A publication in a high -cost of the country.

The legislative committees both in the Chamber of the Commons and at least one provincial legislature have heard testimony that the housing affordability crisis has led to an increase in lack of housing between soldiers and veterans.

In the fall of 2023, Craig Hood, executive director of the Canadian Royal Legion, Nueva Scotia/Nunavut command, told a Committee of the Provincial Legislature that he had heard surprising stories of members of the province living in the province that live rough In stores, living in stores, living their vehicles and the sofa surf. He described the situation at that time as an “epidemic.”

New Scotland is home to the largest naval base in Halifax.

A Committee from the House of the Commons heard a separate testimony, but similar, last year before the introduction of housing measures in the last federal budget.



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