N.B. faces ‘bottlenecks’ in building new housing

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New Brunswick’s housing sector is facing “bottlenecks” in building more units to keep up with the province’s rapidly growing population, according to a former developer.  

Peter Corbyn, executive director of the New Brunswick Non-Profit Housing Association and a former developer himself, says the sector is struggling with some suppliers who aren’t “fitting in as efficiently as they could” with other suppliers in the building process. However, he doesn’t blame the sector for being ill-prepared for the increased housing demand. 

“I believe that if it wasn’t for COVID, we wouldn’t be in this situation – plain and simple,” he said of the province’s housing crisis. “We all know that people moved from Ontario and traded in their million-dollar house for a $250,000 house down here and away they went – good on them – but we are where we are now and we need to react.” 

All suppliers – which he includes as government funding agencies, skilled tradespeople, contractors, construction supply companies and municipalities, to name a few – need to be working in lockstep to keep up with demand.   

“You could have a contractor getting a project built in nine or 10 months, but it takes 18 to 24 months because they’re waiting for other suppliers – not necessarily toilets or two-by-fours – but funding agencies,” said Corbyn, who has himself developed housing in St. Stephen and Nackawic.

On April 9, in front of a crowd at the Fredericton Playhouse, Corbyn issued a call to action to get more people involved in the province’s housing sector – a sector “stressed out” by the overnight demand for more units.  

More than 100 people turned out for his presentation – called Let’s Solve the Housing Crisis – as part of this year’s National Congress on Housing and Homelessness. The three-day conference, hosted by the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, was held at the Fredericton Convention Centre. 

By 2030, New Brunswick is expected to face a shortfall of 29,000 units, across all types of housing, based on a projected population increase of 89,000, according to a recent Housing Hub of New Brunswick report. That’s unless the sector can build its capacity in short order to turn out more units quickly.  

More densely packed housing in province’s future  

Corbyn says the future of housing in the province will involve smaller, more densely packed units within walking distance of amenities and without the same municipal infrastructure demands as previous builds.  

He believes modular homes – a solution the federal Liberal government has touted – will also be one of the keys in adding more units.  

In January, federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser pledged to develop a plan with the four Atlantic provinces to increase the construction of factory-built homes in the region. A plan could be formalized as early as this month.  

In early April, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $6 billion to help provinces and municipalities speed up the building of homes amid a Canada-wide housing crunch. Of that, $1 billion will go directly to municipalities to support infrastructure needs to accommodate the new housing.  

But the majority of the funding will be distributed directly to provinces through individual agreements. In order to get the cash, provinces need to agree to several conditions, including getting its municipalities to allow four units to be built on residential land without the need for rezoning and allowing more “missing middle” homes – duplexes, triplexes and townhouses – to be built in its communities.    

Premier Blaine Higgs was initially critical of the conditions the federal government has put on the funding. If a province and the federal government can’t reach a deal by year’s end, the money earmarked for that particular province is expected to be transferred to the municipal stream so communities can apply for it directly. 

Corbyn says he’s supportive of the federal government’s policy direction on housing. His association, which is made up of 170 non-profit and co-op housing groups responsible for 6,500 affordable units in the province, is ready to do its part toward developing more housing.  

“The reality is that this is a crisis and it’s all hands-on-deck,” he said in an interview after his presentation. “I think it’s important that municipalities and the provincial government and multiple provincial departments and the federal government all be on the same page.  

“We don’t have a choice not to be.” 

– With files from Brunswick News archives 

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story referred to Peter Corbyn as a developer who had undertaken a project in Nauwigewauk. In fact, he had undertaken that project in Nackawic and is now a former developer. We regret the errors.