In its latest efforts to address the housing crisis in Canada, the federal government is launching consultations to revive a revised version of wartime housing efforts: a pre-approved unified design catalog, aiming to help accelerate the construction process.

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser said on Tuesday, "We are living in a housing crisis, but this is not the first time Canada has gone through such a crisis. After World War II, when thousands of soldiers were returning home to reunite with their families at the same time, Canada faced huge housing crises."

One of the tools deployed at that time to respond to the challenges they faced... was the development of simple, pre-approved designs... and we intend to take these lessons from our history books and bring them into the twenty-first century.

Consultations with housing sector stakeholders on the new catalog will begin in January, initially focusing on creating a series of standard low-rise building designs including modular and prefab homes before expanding to potential high-density building plans.

Fraser said the federal government will focus on home designs that are "cost-effective, labor-efficient, and energy-efficient."

This step traces back to the initiative of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) after World War II, which saw the federal Crown corporation create a series of housing design catalogs to help build more homes faster for returning veterans.

The government, known as "Victory Homes" or "Strawberry Box Homes," considers this major federal effort made between the 1950s and 1970s fundamental to addressing housing shortages and construction capacity challenges at that time, and many of these homes still stand across Canada.

But Fraser said this revival initiative will differ from post-war era construction in several ways, including offering a range of different home design types within each category such as garden suites and lane houses, as well as multi-unit complexes that can be used for student housing or senior living.

Fraser added, "It is important to have multiple designs in each of these categories, so communities have some ability to determine the shape of their neighborhoods," and construction will be aligned with current building codes so pre-approved designs move faster through approval processes, with the potential to leverage new technologies like 3D printing.

The minister said, "We want to create designs that can be built quickly and cheaply without compromising quality or sustainability," "and it will also ensure that people living in these homes have low energy bills from month to month, enabling them to keep up with living costs."

Mike Moffatt, an economist and founding director of the PLACE Centre at the Smart Prosperity Institute, advised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government this fall that the current housing crisis requires a wartime-style response, specifically suggesting the reintroduction of a free design catalog.

In response to news that the Liberals will respond to this call, Moffatt said this step "has the potential to be hugely beneficial," if implemented well.

Fraser said he aims for the pre-approved plan catalog to be ready for builders to see by fall 2024, but the minister was unable to provide an estimate of the number of new housing units expected to be constructed through this program.

Fraser continued, "We expect to get an estimate during the consultation period," "I have seen estimates from experts in this field indicating this could reduce construction time on a project by up to one year, so building units faster will also be part of the benefit beyond just getting more units."