‘This is the future of housing’: Jennifer Keesmaat on the case for going all in on modern methods of construction

You can listen to this episode on Amazon, Apple, and Spotify. Episode Description Jennifer Keesmaat, former chief city planner of Toronto and president and CEO of Collecdev Markee, argues that Canada’s housing crisis is a systemic failure requiring structural transformation—not incremental reform. She highlights modern construction methods, including modular housing, cross-laminated timber, and AI-integrated design, as key to building at the speed and scale needed. Keesmaat also explains why coordinated reform across governments, capital markets, and supply chains is essential to making factory-built housing a core part of Canada’s housing system. Episode Summary Canada’s housing crisis has reached a critical juncture, with growing recognition that market-based approaches alone have proven insufficient to address the nation’s affordability challenges. After more than a decade of treating housing primarily as an investment vehicle rather than a fundamental social need, policymakers and industry leaders are confronting the consequences of inadequate regulatory oversight and planning. The housing market’s trajectory over the past fifteen years has created systemic vulnerabilities across Canadian society. An entire generation has been encouraged to view homeownership as the primary path to wealth creation, linking retirement security and economic stability to an increasingly volatile real estate market. This approach has produced significant instability, with far-reaching implications for quality of life and long-term financial planning. Countries with more robust government intervention in housing markets have generally achieved greater stability, suggesting that Canada’s relatively hands-off approach may have contributed to current challenges. The overheated market conditions of recent years masked underlying problems, including inefficient approval processes, excessive government fees, and a lack of innovation in housing design and construction methods. When market conditions appeared favorable, there was little incentive to address these structural issues. The situation has been further complicated by dramatic shifts in demand patterns, particularly related to international student enrollment. Some municipalities experienced severe market distortions as student populations surged, converting single-family homes into multi-occupancy student housing and reducing the supply of affordable family housing. Recent policy changes have recalibrated certain market segments, but the fundamental mismatch between housing supply and family needs persists. Modern construction methods represent a potential pathway forward, though the terminology and understanding of these approaches remain inconsistent. The industry has made significant advances in modular components and factory-built systems, ranging from prefabricated panels to fully finished residential modules. However, public perception often associates modular construction with temporary or low-quality housing, limiting broader adoption. The concept of modern methods of construction encompasses a wide range of innovations, including advanced materials like cross-laminated timber, artificial intelligence applications in design and approval processes, and industrialized manufacturing systems. These approaches offer potential benefits including reduced construction timelines, improved quality control, and lower costs through factory efficiency. Significant barriers remain to scaling these solutions. Government subsidies for affordable housing projects have sometimes created market distortions, making it difficult for market-rate projects using innovative methods to compete. Construction financing systems designed for traditional building methods do not align well with modular approaches where costs are concentrated in off-site manufacturing. Municipal approval processes often struggle to accommodate new building types and construction methodologies. Supply chain development presents both challenges and opportunities. Canada’s tendency to export raw materials and import finished products extends to the housing sector, suggesting potential for domestic industry development. Some manufacturers have begun addressing inefficiencies through technological innovation, but broader systems change is needed across site preparation, regulatory approval, financing mechanisms, and construction capacity. Federal leadership has begun addressing these issues, though competing priorities have limited sustained focus. Existing factory capacity remains underutilized due to systemic bottlenecks rather than manufacturing constraints. Achieving meaningful transformation will require coordinated changes across multiple sectors and levels of government, moving beyond pilot projects toward comprehensive systems reform that can deliver housing at the scale and affordability Canadians require.