Ottawa releases land in Calgary, Edmonton for new housing

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Ottawa is taking proposals from developers to build new housing on Crown-owned land in Calgary and Edmonton, part of the Liberal government’s newly unveiled approach to build homes as it battles a housing crisis across the country.

Speaking from Calgary’s Currie Barracks neighbourhood Wednesday morning, Calgary-Skyview MP George Chahal announced the government is accepting development proposals for two parcels of land: one in the Currie neighbourhood and another in Edmonton’s Village of Griesbach.

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The announcement is a prelude to more public land that will be unlocked for development in the near future, the federal government says.

Ninety-nine housing units will be built on the property in Currie Barracks, Chahal said, with 30 per cent of those units required to be “affordable,” meaning units will go for 80 per cent of Calgary’s median market rental rate. The six-storey condo apartment building will sit at 3830 Quesnay Wood Dr. S.W.

The Edmonton site will eventually see 45 new town houses built in the Village of Griesbach, a developing neighbourhood that was once the site of the CFB Griesbach military base. At least half of those homes will be tagged for affordable housing.

Median rent in Calgary is currently $1,500 a month, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), meaning apartments at the Currie development would go for a maximum $1,200 per month if they were to immediately hit the market. Grinnell said CMHC data will be used to inform the government’s affordability requirements.

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Developers selected to build on the federal land, owned by the Crown corporation Canada Lands Co., will access it on a long-term leasing basis at a discounted value.

“The reduction for non-profit housing providers to get land for a lease long-term so they can focus on building and providing affordability to Calgarians — this is a tremendous opportunity here in this community,” Chahal said alongside Deana Grinnell, Canada Lands Co. executive vice-president of real estate.

The federal Liberal government announced during its cabinet retreat this week that it’s launching a bank that will open underused public lands for development. The Canada Public Land Bank, with 56 properties listed before Wednesday’s announcement, is being framed by the government as a tool to help the country build 250,000 homes by 2031.

The bank’s list of properties will grow over the fall, the federal government has said. The properties are intended for leasing and are ready for builders to submit plans. The homes will be offered on long-term leases “wherever possible,” as opposed to being sold outright.

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The list of properties earmarked by the bank include former military bases, federal office buildings and Canada Post sites.

Among the sites currently listed for feedback in the government database are a former Canada Post site in Fort McMurray, a post office in Airdrie and two sites in the Currie neighbourhood. In Kyle, Sask., a building owned by the RCMP is currently open for feedback. The majority of properties visible online are clustered in Ontario and Quebec.

To date, just five properties are open to proposals from developers, combining for about 1,000 new housing units.

Currie Barracks, a former military base, has already been a site of interest for the federal government’s housing strategy. Canada Lands Co. is in the process of developing a 200-acre site in Currie that will eventually bring 5,700 housing units to the neighbourhood, according to CMHC.

With the Canada Public Land Bank in its infancy, Chahal said future land will likely open up further into the future. “That’s a part of the process we started today . . . and hopefully there will be a lot more in Calgary and across the country,” he said.

Canada Land Co.’s Grinnell confirmed that more land in Currie will become available in 2024 and 2025.

mscace@postmedia.com
X: @mattscace67

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