The provincial government is highlighting a record number of housing starts over the past year.
Jason Nixon, the Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services, says while a lot have been in the big cities, they are working on getting more houses built in the smaller communities.
“We really went out of our way to work with our rural municipalities to figure out unique permitting and development permit systems to create a way that industry can come in and build homes and focus on smaller homebuilders. We spent a lot of time working with our industry on different types of technology to build homes that works better in rural areas. Different types of manufacturing technology, different ways that we can use a big-city type of manufacturing and then move out into some of our more remote communities.”
Over 50,000 new homes were under construction in Alberta in 2025, almost a quarter of all housing starts across Canada.
Affordable housing also a focus for the province with Nixon saying that their investments are a part of addressing problems around homelessness in many communities.
“We’re doing $9 billion in affordable housing investments which will help with post-treatment housing and different types of transitional housing out of emergency services. That’s going to continue to be a high priority. When it comes to homelessness, we also have to focus on mental health and drug issues. With Alberta’s new recovery plan bringing in the most addiction recovery spaces anywhere in the country, we’re going to start to see some of the benefits to that.”
The provincial government is currently providing affordable housing to more than 60,000 households, including rental assistance for more than 13,000.
You can listen to the full interview below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
