Development review, faster Hydro hookups touted as ways to speed up housing construction in Winnipeg

The provincial and City of Winnipeg leaders laid out their plans to get houses built faster during a gathering of construction industry members on Thursday.

Premier Wab Kinew and Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham shared the stage at the annual general meeting of the Manitoba Home Builders Association, where both were asked for their plans to speed up housing construction.

Kinew vowed to tackle delays getting new homes connected to the electrical grid, while Gillingham said the city is looking to hire a consultant to review its entire development process.

The consultant will analyze "everything from development application through to final inspection to see where there are choke points, where we can make changes to make sure that we're doing a better job of getting more development to happen faster," the mayor told reporters.

The review will focus on the processing of various permits and applications, including development applications, development permits, building permits, trade permits and occupancy permits.

The consultant will consider how different city departments and divisions work together, what gaps exist, how information is tracked and communicated, and how to improve timelines.

The city expects a final report on the review by November 2025. 

The city needs to build more than 14,000 housing units over the next three years to qualify for more than $122 million from the federal housing accelerator fund — a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation program that gives municipalities funding for housing development.

According to a recent report to council's executive policy committee, the city approved more than 12,000 units between Dec. 5, 2023 and Nov. 4, 2024, but fewer than 3,000 of those have building permits — the final stage of the approval process before construction can begin.

The Conference Board of Canada's latest economic outlook report for Winnipeg, released on Thursday, forecasts housing starts in Winnipeg will fall to 5,070 units this year, down from 5,450 units last year. Those numbers are expected to tick up next year to 5,540 units, and 5,840 units in 2026.

WATCH | Kinew, Gillingham speak at Manitoba Home Builders Association AGM:

Premier Kinew and Mayor Gillingham lay out plans to build homes faster

13 days ago

Duration 1:50

The City of Winnipeg is looking for a consultant to help it speed up housing construction. The needs to build more than 14,000 housing units over the next three years to qualify for millions in federal housing grants. Mayor Scott Gillingham says the city has made progress speeding up its permit process, but he says more work is needed.

Kinew, meanwhile, says his government will work with Manitoba Hydro officials to speed up the process of supplying electricity to new homes, although he did not have a specific target for how much faster he wants the process to be.

"I think we want it to be on the double — at your service is the target," Kinew told reporters. 

"I'm sure there's going to be a transition period, but the more quickly we can hook up Hydro to new home construction sites, the more money you're going to save."