The federal department responsible for Canada’s housing file says it has “nothing to report” on how mass immigration is affecting the country’s strained housing market — even though the government is set to table its next Immigration Levels Plan before the end of the year.

The admission came in response to Conservative MP Brad Redekopp’s detailed written question (Q-433), which asked for the basic modelling, assumptions, briefings, and inter-departmental work underpinning the housing implications of Canada’s immigration targets.

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Redekopp requested:

• any shared workbooks or models between Immigration Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC);

• assumptions used for household formation by newcomer class and by temporary residents;

• modelling on expected impacts to housing starts, completions, rents, prices and vacancy rates; and

• copies of briefing notes related to aligning immigration admissions with housing supply.

The response from Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, signed by Housing Minister Jennifer McKelvie, consisted of a single line:

“Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada has nothing to report.”

No modelling. No assumptions. No analysis. No documents.

This, despite the federal government planning another year of high-intake immigration levels and repeated warnings from CMHC and private economists that Canada would need millions of new homes just to stabilize affordability.

At a time when rents are soaring, home ownership is slipping out of reach, and emergency shelters are overwhelmed, the department tasked with fixing the crisis is telling Parliament it has nothing to say about how immigration levels affect the housing market.