The housing agency’s report estimates that the 650,000 people—the most ever— who worked in construction in 2023 should have been able to build some 400,000 homes, based on the historical relationships between the total number of construction workers and housing starts. Instead, Canada started work on 240,267 units last year. (The Logic) 

Talking point: Mathieu Laberge, CMHC’s senior vice-president of housing economics and insight, also looked at starts per population in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver—the three cities with the highest ratios of starts-to-population—to buttress his estimate of a reasonable marker for the number of homes Canada should be able to build in a given year. Canada was more efficient at building houses 20 years ago. What happened? Two things: excessive regulation and too many small construction outfits that lack the wherewithal to scale. Politicians are getting better at knocking down regulatory barriers, but Laberge said consolidation in the construction industry will likely be necessary to boost supply to the levels necessary to catch up with demand.