Ottawa: The Northern Access round of the Housing Supply Challenge will launch in January 2022 Led by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, round 3 will fund supply chain solutions for northern and remote regions which have the most urgent housing need in Canada.
This is exacerbated by the:
• high costs for transporting materials
• difficulty funding projects
• long timelines required for maintaining and building housing supply Current housing supply is at risk of rapid deterioration. The creation of new supply is constrained by multiple factors. The main factors include the time, risk and cost to access the necessary resources and materials to maintain and build appropriate housing.
Definition of “Northern”
The Northern regions include the: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Inuit Nunangat (Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, Inuvialuit settlement region), Northern regions of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. This round will be inclusive of all communities that consider themselves northern or remote based on varying definitions.
A wide range of solutions that will improve affordable access to materials and resources in northern and remote regions are relevant to this round, including:
• transportation and logistical solutions that improve access to building materials and resources
• solutions to increase accessibility to fly in / fly out communities
• solutions to improve climate adaptation and locally appropriate techniques
• capacity and training solutions that address the high cost and limited access to training delivery and new approaches for youth and students
• local, community-driven solutions that reduce dependency on the supply chain
• technology solutions that improve or expand existing infrastructure
• innovative approaches to materials,like new material development, community warehousing and economies of scale
• alternative methods for financing land development and construction Significant investments are required to offset the costs and risks of developing solutions for northern and remote regions when compared to southern and rural areas. Selected applicants will be eligible for a pool of up to $80 million. Supply chain solutions must be locallyrelevant as northern and remote regions have distinct needs. Different supply chain barriers exist in different communities. Each northern and remote community has unique considerations that include:
• climate; culture; infrastructure and environment The Housing Supply Challenge targets housing supply and affordability barriers that exist at the system level, ensuring we can build more units in the future. It doesn’t directly fund the construction of new units. There are three objectives for the Northern Access Round:
• Reduce time, cost, and risk to access required materials for housing.
• Demonstrate impact on building or maintaining appropriate housing supply.
• Provide direct benefit to northern and remote regions.