North Vancouver housing study echoes wartime lessons on government building
Federal Build Canada Homes agency looks to 1941 model as provinces and Ottawa weigh deeper collaboration on housing supply.
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A 1941 wartime housing program offers a template for how Canada could tackle its current housing crisis — and North Vancouver was one of three cities that saw the model tested.
Wartime Housing Ltd., created under the War Measures Act in February 1941, was designed to house war workers in Halifax, Windsor, and North Vancouver as shipyards and munitions plants mobilized thousands of people into towns with no housing stock. The corporation, run by Hamilton construction magnate Joseph Pigott and reporting to C.D. Howe as minister of munitions and supply, took just four months from conception to incorporation to launch.
Historian Jill Wade documented the operation in her 1986 study "Wartime Housing Limited, 1941-1947." Rather than operating as a slow federal bureaucracy, Wartime Housing worked like a private developer — using local contractors, standardized designs, tight cost control, and semi-prefabricated assembly. Crews worked through rain and winter mud in continuous assembly lines, putting up one-and-a-half-storey bungalows from factory-built components. Tenants nicknamed them "strawberry box" houses and paid $22 to $30 a month.
In North Vancouver, as in Halifax and Windsor, workers had been renting "hot beds" — three shifts rotating through a single mattress over 24 hours — before the corporation stepped in.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's Build Canada Homes federal agency, created more recently, aims to double the number of residences built each year. But according to analysis released this week, Ottawa lacks the sweeping powers it claimed during the Second World War. Canada will not substantively tackle its housing crisis unless new bridges form between federal and provincial governments to unleash the power of the state to build when the market falters.
The wartime model — fast, contractor-led, cost-controlled — contrasts sharply with the assumption that state developers are necessarily slow and procurement-bound. For North Vancouver residents watching housing costs climb, the parallel raises a question officials have not yet answered: what would it take for provinces to grant Ottawa the coordination powers it needs now?
Build Canada Homes aims to double housing output annually — what is the current baseline, and is the agency on track?
What specific federal powers were invoked during wartime that are not available now, and which provincial governments have signalled willingness to share authority?
We'll update this story as answers emerge.
At a glance
What was Wartime Housing Ltd. and where did it operate?
Wartime Housing Ltd. was a corporation created under the War Measures Act in February 1941 to house war workers in Halifax, Windsor, and North Vancouver near shipyards and munitions plants. It was run by Joseph Pigott and reported to C.D. Howe, minister of munitions and supply.
How quickly did Wartime Housing Ltd. go from concept to operation?
Wartime Housing Ltd. took just four months from conception to incorporation to launch its first housing projects.
What building methods did Wartime Housing Ltd. use?
Wartime Housing Ltd. operated like a private developer, using local contractors, standardized designs, tight cost control, and semi-prefabricated assembly. Crews assembled one-and-a-half-storey bungalows from factory-built components in continuous assembly lines, and tenants paid $22 to $30 monthly.
What housing problem existed in North Vancouver before Wartime Housing Ltd. arrived?
Workers in North Vancouver were renting 'hot beds'—three shifts rotating through a single mattress over 24 hours—before the corporation provided adequate housing.
