Building student housing across Canada

Appearance before the Standing Committee on National Finance (NFFN)

November 18, 2025

Canada’s universities are ready to help tackle the housing crisis by building student housing on campuses across the country. During an appearance to the Standing Committee on National Finance on November 18, 2025, Universities Canada emphasized how campus infrastructure is community infrastructure, supporting housing, transit, childcare, health clinics, libraries and other services.

Universities Canada made three recommendations:

1. Recognize student housing as a national priority.
2. Make funding flexible and realistic to help projects move forward and keep rents affordable.
3. Design programs that support scale, innovation and renewal, including residence refurbishment, multi-campus applications, modular construction and net-zero approaches.

With the right federal partnerships, campuses can help Canada build housing faster, greener and smarter.