In a small factory in Granby, Que., south of Montreal, workers are preparing steel-reinforced concrete panels to be shipped to construction sites.

These prefabricated components can come with insulation, windows, doors and even a Juliet balcony.

“I call it ‘ready-to-wear’ for construction,” said Virginie Brouillard, vice-president of Avac Beton, which was founded by her family four decades ago.

The idea, said Daniel Goodfellow, a housing developer who joined the company’s ownership in 2021, is to build homes “cheaper, faster and better.”

When Goodfellow joined, the company shifted its focus on unique, ornate concrete moulds to components that can be used on large-scale housing developments, including his own projects.

His company, Werkliv, specializes in student housing and has developed projects in several cities across Canada. Goodfellow said his foray into prefabricated housing is part of a broader effort to make the whole process of getting housing built more efficient.

As it stands, he said, the delays in everything from obtaining permits to securing federal financing make it nearly impossible to get housing built quickly.

He said the average development project takes a decade or more to complete. “It’s just simply too long,” he said. “I’d really like to see the government treat it like a crisis.”

Virginie Brouillard, vice-president of Avac Beton, with Daniel Goodfellow, the president of the company and founder of Werkliv, a Montreal-based property development company. (Benjamin Shingler/CBC)

Housing costs soaring

Quebec — like much of Canada — has seen housing costs rise dramatically over the past few decades.

The median price of a single family home has more than doubled in the past 10 years. It’s now about $600,000 in the greater Montreal area, according to the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers. Rents are also climbing at a historic rate.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has estimated Canada will require an additional 3.5 million housing units by 2030, on top of the 2.3 million already projected to be built, to restore affordability to levels seen in 2004.

With the cost of housing soaring in Montreal and much of the country, Goodfellow is among those hoping to see major changes from the next federal government.

“Let’s build as much of this stuff as we can,” he said. “This is a real supply problem.”

The CMHC design catalogue includes a range of designs for all the provinces and territories, some grouped together. Pictured is the rendering of an accessory unit designed for Quebec. (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC))

Party plans

Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war casting a shadow over the election, the cost of housing remains a key issue for many voters.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney released his housing policy earlier this week, promising to double the number of homes built annually in Canada to nearly 500,000.

To get that done, a Carney-led Liberal government says it would create an entity that would act as a developer overseeing the construction of affordable housing in Canada.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has made addressing the housing crisis a key part of his campaign, introduced his own housing plan in 2023 that he said would “build homes not bureaucracy.”

Under his proposals, cities would have to increase the number of homes built by 15 per cent each year. If they fail to meet that target, those municipalities would see their federal grants withheld at a commensurate rate.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is proposing to set aside 100 per cent of suitable federal Crown land to build more than 100,000 rent-controlled homes by 2035. He has also pledged to ban large corporate landlords from buying up affordable homes to keep rents low.

WATCH : Quebec mayors have strong views on how federal government can help: 

How can the federal government help Canadians facing a housing crisis?

Quebecers are struggling with rent hikes, hefty mortgages and a housing market that has priced many people out. Big city mayors reflect on what the federal government needs to be doing to help constituents.

Financing a hurdle

Municipal, provincial and federal governments all have an important role to play, said Carolyn Whitzman, a senior housing researcher at University of Toronto School of Cities.

“All three levels of government have really fallen down on their responsibility to provide a home for everyone,” said Whitzman, who has advised the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Greens on their housing policy. 

The federal government, she said, can do more to finance new builds, open up more land to development and speed up construction — including by putting more emphasis on prefabricated homes.

She believes, as well, that a national housing strategy is necessary to make sure low-income residents have a place to stay.

“The real challenge in Montreal is preserving that affordability, preserving … and expanding that good zoning that has been in place for much longer in Quebec than in the rest of Canada,” she said.

“The financing structure needs to change to finance in a sustainable long-term way much more new affordable rentals.”

Get rid of all the ‘nonsense’

Earlier this week, Montreal unveiled plans to develop some of that federal land, south of downtown. At the announcement, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said the federal government needs to give more money for social housing.

“We see in our streets more and more vulnerable people living in awful conditions. That’s the extreme,” Plante said.

“But let’s not forget about the middle class that is definitely struggling on many, many levels.”

Workers at Avac Beton, in Granby, Que. The company provides prefabricated components for housing projects. (Benjamin Shingler/CBC)

A spokesperson for Quebec’s housing minister would not comment on any campaign policy announcements, but said the province would welcome more federal help — without conditions — to build more affordable and social housing more quickly in Quebec.

Community groups have also called for more social housing. Catherine Lussier, with the Quebec housing group FRAPRU, argued the decision by the federal government to pull back funding for social housing in the 1990s has been detrimental for low-income residents.

“One of the major problems is the lack of social housing for especially tenants that are low income,” Lussier said.

In Goodfellow’s view, the government needs to help developers build. He argued building more homes — of any type — will bring down the costs for everyone.

“Our objective should just be, ‘how do we make as much affordable housing as possible?’ and let’s get rid of all the rest of the nonsense.”