Transparency lacking in implementation of N.B. housing strategy, auditor general says

Key elements of New Brunswick's strategy to encourage the development of 6,000 new homes per year lacktransparency, includingaround the timelinesfor achieving specific objectivesand the total costof some of the projects, says the province's auditor general.

Part of Paul Martin's reportzeroed inon theNew Brunswick Housing Corporation's implementation of the N.B. Housing strategy, which was released last June by Jill Green, minister responsible for housing.

"Fiftyper cent of the actions [in the strategy] had no noted cost to government," said Martin, speaking beforethe legislature's standing committee on public accounts.

"For example, the action to recruit and or pre-qualify 10,000individuals in priority trade occupations, to support immigration to New Brunswick, had no program costs or housing solution to the immigrants included in the strategy."

WATCH | 'We're interested in measuring their performance on this'

Attorney general zeroes in on N.B Housing strategy

5 months ago

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In his report, Paul Martin says housing corporation needs to make goals more transparent to the public.

The three-year, $551-million strategy includesthe goalsof encouraging the creation of 6,000 new homes per year, reducing the waitlist for subsidized housing by 3,000 households, andincreasingthe number of skilled trades for residential construction by sevenper cent annually.

It also aimsto create conditions to hold annual rent increases at an average of 2.5 per cent and the percentage change in average home prices to 4.8 per cent.

The strategy was released as the provincial government's response to New Brunswick's housing crisis, brought on by rapidly rising rents, home prices and record-low residential vacancy rates.

The New Brunswick Housing Corporationwas established in 2023 to carry out the strategy's 22 action items, and its budget was funded through transfers from the Department of Social Development, the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure and Service New Brunswick.

Martin, in his report, said the housing corporationhas established targets and measurable actions within the strategy, but needs to make clearer thelinksbetween its actions and itsstated goals, as well as transparency, monitoring and reporting on its progress.

On transparency, Martin said most of the actions were measurable, had been clearly assigned to executives at the housing corporationand had their sources of funding identified.However, 16 of the 22 actions had no timeline for completion.

Additionally, 11 of the 22 actions had no specificoverall cost to government.

One of those wasthe province extending temporary property tax relief to landlords by limiting assessment growthfor tax purposesby 10 per cent for eligible non-residential properties and apartment buildings with more than four units.

Another was the province's commitment to make government surplus property available for affordable housing development.

"In some cases, program details were not sufficient to determine if the funding was going to be a loan, forgivable loan, or non-repayable grant," Martin said.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Martin said his audit was a good opportunity to offer the provincial government a scorecard for how it's doing on an important social issue.

"We're interested in measuring their performance on this and I hope they will take our recommendations and take them to the next step," he said.

The audit comes just shy of the one-year anniversary of the strategy being released, but statistics already suggest the province is lagging behind on some ofits targets.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation published data showing New Brunswick had 4,547 new housing starts in 2023, short of the strategy's goal of 6,000 annually.

And in May, Statistics Canada published data showing rents in New Brunswick jumped by 10.8 per cent in April compared to a year earlier.

Speaking to reporters, Green touted the work donein the past 11 months, adding that housing starts have gone "off the charts," with numbers higher than when they started being tracked in 1948.

At the same time, she acknowledged Martin's criticisms around transparencyand public reporting on the progress it makes.

"We're about to launch the review of the first year of the housing strategy," Green said. "We are doing that, and we'll take his recommendations very seriously and implement them."