Ottawa’s new $15-billion Apartment Construction Loan Program is drawing praise, along with calls for more federal support for rental-housing development.

Scott Pearce, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, welcomed the move that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Tuesday in her fall budget update. But Pearce, also the mayor of Gore, Que., called for more federal funding of infrastructure to service new apartment buildings.

The reality is that new housing construction can not be scaled up rapidly without investment in municipal infrastructure, he contended.

Shaimaa Yassin, director of research at the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy, said on LinkedIn that the Apartment Loan Construction Program is good, but may not advance affordable housing projects unless more reforms are made to it.

In a news release, Universities Canada said the $15 billion in new loan funding and an additional $1 billion for the Affordable Housing Fund is “a step in the right direction.” But the Ottawa-based advocacy group said the measures do not allow Canadian universities to collaborate on the country’s housing crisis.

Much more is needed to meet national housing strategy’s goal of introducing 160,000 new affordable homes by 2028, the group added. Universities Canada wants Ottawa to incentivize rental-housing construction with low-cost financing; include post-secondary institutions in the national housing strategy and increase the supply of affordable housing across the country.

The Apartment Construction Loan Program, which begin investing the $15 billion in 2025, was formerly known as the Rental Construction Financing Initiative (RCFi). The feds provided $4.1 billion in loans through RCFi between November 14-17.

Ferenc Scobie, president of Edmonton-based multi-family real estate investment firm Score Properties, expressed excitement about the forthcoming $15 billion in funding.

“Things just keep getting better and better for us!” he said on LinkedIn.