Canada promises $30 billion plan to tackle homelessness in ten years, beginning in Winnipeg
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Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a $30 billion national initiative, including $1 billion for Manitoba, to expand supportive housing, mental-health care, and coordinated public action over the next decade.
Prime Minister Mark Carney used a budget presentation in Winnipeg to announce a $30-billion nationwide plan aimed at ending homelessness in Canada within ten years. The first tranche will send Manitoba $1 billion to build more than 2,000 supportive and transitional homes and to create a new Winnipeg Centre for Mental Health and Addictions, a long-overdue response to a crisis that has been left to deepen for far too long.
Speaking at the construction site of a First Nations-led affordable-housing project, Carney said the effort will require “ambition, execution and partnership amongst all levels of government, with contributions from philanthropy and business.” He stressed that the plan mixes fresh budget spending with the renewal of existing programs, signaling that meaningful public investment is finally being paired with coordinated action.
Manitoba’s NDP Premier Wab Kinew welcomed the announcement, calling it a major win for the province and pointing to the toll homelessness takes on children he meets in schools. His remarks underscored the human cost of years of policy failure and the urgency of building real supports.
The Liberal government, which campaigned on “Canada’s most ambitious housing plan since the Second World War,” says it wants to double the pace of housing construction to nearly 500,000 new homes a year. A newly created federal agency, Build Canada Homes, will take over some responsibilities previously held by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), reflecting a more interventionist approach to a problem that has not been solved by market forces alone.
CMHC data released earlier this year showed housing starts flattening in September and projected a decline to 223,400 starts in 2027, down from 241,400 in 2026 and 259,028 in 2025. The budget also sets aside $45 billion over ten years for a range of housing policies, including mental-health and addiction support, acknowledging that shelter alone is not enough without care and social investment.
Federal Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson acknowledged past challenges in Vancouver, attributing earlier shortfalls to a lack of coordination among federal, provincial and municipal governments, and said coordinated action is essential for the new target. The message was clear: without aligned public planning and sustained investment, homelessness will continue to grow while governments delay.