Toolkits

The Urban Infrastructure Challenge in Canada: Perceptions and Realities

This toolkit addresses the definition of “basic urban infrastructure”, the importance of infrastructure investment for housing affordability and choice, the roles of different investors in financing basic infrastructure, and feasible options for funding such infrastructure.

Housing Affordability and Choice: Community Prosperity in the 21st Century

This toolkit outlines a “new paradigm” for attracting investment to a community and offers important insights into decision-making about location and investment. The toolkit stresses the emphasis placed on housing affordability and choice by both international and Canadian companies and by talented people in making choices among different locations.

Smart Policy Decisions: Implementing Smart Government in the Housing Sector

These papers describe the CHBA's recommended approach to improve government and reduce the negative impacts of regulation.

Demonstrating the Benefits of Growth

This toolkit seeks to equip Local HBAs and builder/developer members with the basic tools necessary to present the strong case for encouraging growth in a community - and explaining the key role played by new residential development in facilitating growth.

The Potential Effects of Inclusionary Zoning in Canada

This toolkit examines potential social, economic and physical planning impacts of “Inclusionary zoning policies”. “Inclusionary zoning” refers to municipal policies that require provision of “affordable housing” -- that is to say subsidized or social housing -- as part of larger residential developments.

Tracking Development Charges in Municipal Reserve Funds

This toolkit examines the different regimes for managing development industry funds in a representative sample of twelve major cities in Canada, and for the year 2005. It assesses the transparency, and hence accountability, of the municipal reserve funds in which these monies are held.

Municipal Appeal Mechanisms

This document provides a summary of provincial appeal mechanisms relating to municipal development approvals.

How Recent Changes to the National Model Codes Process Help Deal with Urgent and Emerging Issues

The toolkit outlines how the CCBFC receives policy advice from the Provincial-Territorial Policy Advisory Committee on Codes (PTPACC), and how provinces and territories support the national model code process, with the objective of maintaining and increasing harmonization of technically sound, research-based consensus code requirements across the country.

Extended Producer Responsibility and Waste Management

This toolkit addresses emerging regulations affecting how construction and demolition wastes will be managed. Specifically, it examines the concept of “extended producer responsibility”, or EPR, and how this may impact new home building and renovation firms. It also recommends actions for provincial Home Builders’ Associations to take to ensure that our industry is well represented as future waste management decisions are made in their jurisdictions.

Cap and Trade

The report provides an overview of how our industry and our customers could be impacted as Cap and Trade becomes a reality. While the residential sector will almost certainly not be included directly under an emissions cap, nevertheless a range of indirect cost impacts can be expected. These will arise due to Cap and Trade impacts on material and product costs, on the costs of operating our businesses, and on the cost of energy to homeowners.

Innovation in the Housing Industry

Innovation is important to the social and economic well-being of Canada, and our standard of living depends heavily on productivity that, in turn, depends on innovation. These papers outline CHBA's participation in Industry Canada’s Innovation Initiative.

Private Property

These articles discuss private property rights in a number of contexts.

Rental Housing

These papers discuss the tax treatment of rental housing investment.

Human Resources in the Resdiential Construction Industry

These papers outline human resources in the resdiential construction industry within the context of the federal government's labour market strategy.

Standards in the Residential Construction Industry

Standards perform a vital, but limited, function and are important to new home builders and renovators. Canada’s building standards are internationally renowned, but they face threats, both domestically and internationally, and all parties who benefit from Canada's Standards Development Sustem should help address the problems.

Liability in the Residential Building Industry

The objective of these reports are to present developments in Canada on the topic of liability in the residential building industry.

Municipal Accountability for Regulation

This paper is intended to provide a quick review of readily available information touching on issues related to building codes in Canada being drafted in model form at the national level (model National Building Code of Canada, etc.), and enacted by provincial governments, sometimes with revisions.