From Ideas to Law: Tracking MMI’s Policy Impact

Tracking outcomes in a world where policy has many parents

Jan 01, 2026

Highlights

From ideas to implementation across housing and economic policy: The work of the Missing Middle Initiative has helped shape major reforms, from eliminating the GST on purpose-built rentals to zoning, building-code, financing, data, and population-growth reforms, often moving from recommendation to adoption in months, not years.
Policy impact is real, but rarely clean or attributable: Think-tank success isn’t about claiming ownership of ideas; it’s about seeing evidence-based policies enacted through complex, collaborative processes where credit is diffuse, and outcomes matter more than recognition.
Counting wins while staying honest about limits: We track policy outcomes carefully, acknowledge where attribution is uncertain, or reforms are incomplete, and treat each win as a step toward the larger goal of building a more affordable, productive, middle-class-friendly Canada.

Counting our wins as best we can

Over the years, the Missing Middle Initiative and its predecessor, the PLACE Centre, have been instrumental in governments enacting pro-middle-class reforms, particularly in housing. Before we discuss those wins, the following caveat is needed, which is taken from the piece How We Think About and Measure Organizational Success at MMI:

Policy-oriented think tanks are strange beasts. They are not lobbying shops, nor do they engage in traditional government relations. However, they also don’t release policy reports for the sake of releasing policy reports. The policy think-tank has an ultimate goal, and that goal requires enacting evidence-based policy. As such, policy reforms are necessary (but not sufficient) for the think-tank to be considered a success.

The biggest challenge in tracking outcomes is what Kuntz describes as the “attribution problem”:

The problem is one of attribution — who gets the credit for a policy that is implemented? Policy input comes from many places. Public or governmental policy development is a complex and iterative process in which policy ideas are researched, analyzed, discussed and refined — often through broad consultations with many stakeholders. When a policy is finally adopted, it may wear the fingerprints of many hands. For these reasons, a think tank cannot always claim success and say, “this policy was our idea.” In many cases, it would be highly unusual for a political leader to give credit to a particular think tank for a specific policy; such leaders must take ownership of their own policies, to be accountable for them.

For example, MMI’s predecessor, the PLACE Centre, was instrumental in the creation of the National Housing Accord (NHA), a set of rental housing policy recommendations to the federal government. We held several meetings with high-ranking federal officials, and I presented some of the ideas at a federal government cabinet retreat. A few weeks after the NHA was released, the federal government adopted several recommendations, including eliminating the GST on purpose-built rental construction.

With that in mind, here are 10 policy wins achieved by MMI and the PLACE Centre through January 1, 2026.

Policy Win #1: Elimination of the GST on Purpose Built Rental Housing Construction

In the summer of 2023, we collaborated with REALPAC and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness to produce the National Housing Accord (NHA), a set of ten recommendations to address the rental housing crisis. The Accord was published on August 15th of that year, and less than one month later, the federal government announced that it would adopt our recommendation 3a: the elimination of the GST on the construction of purpose-built rental housing. Ottawa would go on to adopt several of the other recommendations as part of its 2024 Canada Housing Plan.

Attribution is always challenging in policy reform, but a Globe and Mail piece attributed the federal government’s GST reform to us.

Policy Win #2: Stablecoin Reforms

Our September 2025 research report on stablecoins had a single recommendation: “Canada must, as soon as possible, create a clear regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins, guided by seven principles.” Less than two months later, as part of Budget 2025, the federal government announced it would create such a framework. While the framework is not identical to what we advocated, for example, our 5th principle would allow stablecoin issuers to pay interest, while the proposed federal framework does not, what the government is proposing is close enough to our report that we will count it as a win.

Two weeks after the Budget’s release, we discussed the proposed reforms on the Missing Middle podcast.

Policy Win #3: Zoning and Building Code Reform

In September 2023, the Task Force for Housing and Climate was formed. Lisa Raitt and Don Iveson co-chaired the Task Force, and MMI’s Founding Director Mike Moffatt acted as secretariat and penned the final report, The Blueprint for More and Better Housing, which contained 130 recommendations spread across three orders of government. The Task Force included over a dozen members, including the current Prime Minister, Mark Carney.

Many of the recommendations have since been adopted, particularly around the as-of-right construction of multiplexes. As-of-right multiplexes were part of the federal Housing Accelerator Fund as well countless provincial and municipal reforms. The May 2025 Report Card on More and Better Housing details many of the policy wins.

The Blueprint and the National Housing Accord have also inspired upcoming building code changes. This passage from the federal government’s 2024 Canada Housing Plan:

Simplifying the Way that Canada Builds Homes: Over the years, it has become incredibly complicated to build homes in Canada. To help fix this, we are going to make specific changes to the National Building Code, in consultation with the provinces and territories. This includes a national approach to support factory-built housing, and changes to allow more multi-bedroom apartments in existing neighbourhoods.
To help accomplish this, the National Research Council (NRC) will launch consultations this Summer to address regulatory barriers, including point access blocks and single egress designs, and streamline the inspection process. In addition, the NCR will identify ways to reduce duplication between factory inspections of modular home components and on-site building inspections, and support efforts to address regulatory barriers to help scale up factory-built housing across the country.

was clearly influenced by Recommendation 6 of our 2023 National Housing Accord:

The federal government should help reform the National Building Code to drive innovation in the homebuilding sector. Changes to the building code can drive productivity in the building sector and allow for more accessible, climate-friendly and affordable purpose-built rental projects, which can be less labour-intensive to build. These can include modular housing construction, mass timber and single egress for multi-unit residential buildings up to 6 storeys.

Policy Win #4: Enhanced Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance Provisions

Recommendation 3a of the National Housing Accord was to increase the accelerated capital cost allowance on newly constructed purpose-built rental apartments, to incentivize their construction. The federal government would implement this as part of its 2024 Canada Housing Plan:

We are going to create the next generation of Canada’s rental stock, and get them built faster by introducing a temporary accelerated capital cost allowance tax measure that will be proposed in Budget 2024. Increasing the capital cost allowance rate from 4% to 10% will incentivize builders to get more projects moving by increasing their after-tax return on investment.
Eligible new purpose-built rental projects would be those beginning construction on or after April 16, 2024, and before January 1, 2031, and that are available for use before January 1, 2036.

Not only is this a useful policy in-and-of itself, but it’s also a necessary ingredient in implementing the MURB (Multiple Unit Residential Building) tax provision. We hope the federal government will make good on that promise in 2026.

Policy Win #5: CMHC Housing Design Catalogue

We recognize that this is not a universally beloved reform, but the federal government’s reintroduction of the housing design catalogue can be traced back to Recommendation 7b of our National Housing Accord:

Create a catalogue of pre-approved housing designs, including mid-rise purpose-built rentals, that are energy-efficient, using innovative methods such as mass-timber and require less skilled labour than traditional forms. Developments that use these designs should be fast-tracked for CMHC and other approvals. A catalogue of pre-approved designs would speed up approvals processes and create economies-of-scale for new building methods such as modular housing, lower costs through learning by doing and act as a “pull” mechanism to stimulate innovation in the homebuilding sector.

A CBC article credited us for the federal government’s implementation of the idea and noted that we presented it at a 2023 federal government cabinet retreat. So too did CHCH News in Hamilton, Ontario.

Policy Win #6: Increased Access to Construction Capital

A number of federal reforms can be tied back to work conducted by the MMI team, which appears in the National Housing Accord, the Blueprint for More and Better Housing, as well as podcast episodes and other research reports. These include:

Recommendation #4 of the NHA called on the federal government to “provide low-cost, long-term fixed-rate financing for constructing purpose-built rental housing, as well as financing to upgrade existing purpose-built rentals to make them more accessible, climate-friendly and energy efficient.” Since the release of the NHA, the federal government has increased the annual limit for Canada Mortgage Bonds, increased the capital available in the Apartment Construction Loan Program (ACLP), extended the terms of loans offered under ACLP, and provided additional flexibility on affordability, energy-efficiency, and accessibility requirements under ACLP.
A provision was introduced in the 2024 federal budget which exempts purpose-built rental apartment construction from the excessive interest and financing expenses limitation (EIFEL) rules, which we called for in the NHA and other reports.

Policy Win #7: Streamlined Approval Processes and Lowered Development Charges

Recommendation 7a of the NHA called for the federal government to “streamline the CMHC approvals process, which can include a Code of Conduct for Builders.” The federal government adopted this recommendation as part of the federal action, from the Canada Housing Plan:

We are making changes to the Apartment Construction Loan Program to make it easier for builders to build and to get more projects done faster. These changes include: Launching a new frequent builder stream to fast-track the application process for proven home builders.

Both the NHA and the Blueprint for More and Better Housing called for the federal government to work with municipalities to speed up municipal approval processes. The federal government made this a key component of the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), and added additional funds to the HAF under the Canada Housing Plan, explicitly for red-tape reduction:

Helping Municipalities Legalize Housing and Streamline Approvals: Right now, in many cities across Canada, it’s illegal to build more than one housing unit on your own property. Missing middle housing is also often heavily restricted. We have been working with municipalities to change that by allowing more missing middle housing options. Canada’s $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund has incentivized the removal of zoning barriers, accelerated permitting, and invested in affordable housing. To date, the federal government has signed 179 Housing Accelerator Fund agreements which, combined, will fast-track an estimated total of over 750,000 housing units across the country over the next decade, and we are just getting started.
Building on this success, Budget 2024 will propose another $400 million to the program so more municipalities can cut red tape, fast-track home construction, and invest in affordable housing. This will fast-track an additional 12,000 new homes in the next three years.

MMI has written extensively and had numerous podcast episodes on how excessive development charges increase the price of homes and slow homebuilding. Unfortunately, we have had fewer wins in this area, though some communities, such as Vaughan, Mississauga, and the City of Vancouver, have lowered development charges, while Ontario has introduced development charge deferrals, a frequent topic of discussion at MMI.

We hope that 2026 will bring additional development charge wins, including the promised implementation of a federal development charge reduction program and a direct-to-buyer development charge model, which can save billions in infrastructure financing costs.

Policy Win #8: Use of Government Land for Homebuilding and Accelerated Homebuilding Innovation

The federal section of the Blueprint for More and Better Housing contains Recommendation IV.3, “create a land bank that coordinates public lands with preferential federal financing and other jurisdictional supports.” The federal government would go on to introduce a similar policy in the Canada Housing Plan:

Launching a Historic Public Lands for Homes Plan: The high cost and scarcity of land are key barriers to building homes. These barriers also make homes more expensive to build and more expensive for Canadians. Governments across Canada are sitting on surplus, underused, and vacant lands that are offering no public benefit. By unlocking these lands for housing, governments can lower the costs of construction and build more homes, faster, at prices Canadians can afford.

Similarly, the Blueprint and the NHA made recommendations on accelerating innovation in homebuilding, with Recommendation 5 of the NHA advocating that “the federal government should help develop a robust innovation strategy for housing, including procurement policy and innovation centres for housing construction”. This would also be implemented as part of the Canada Housing Plan:

Implementing an Industrial Strategy for Homebuilding: Canada needs an industrial strategy to end its housing crisis. As material prices rise and tight labour markets persist, we’re committed to an all-hands-on-deck approach to a productive homebuilding sector. In the coming months, we will engage the housing, construction and building material sectors, along with labour unions, Indigenous housing experts, and other relevant stakeholders, to develop a Canadian industrial strategy for homebuilding. Together we will explore all essential inputs into building homes in Canada, including raw and manufactured materials, supply chains, and building techniques to ensure that all orders of government and industry can achieve our ultimate goal of building homes smarter, faster, and at prices Canadians can afford.

The combination of using public land for homebuilding and the focus on innovation in homebuilding would be at the heart of the federal government’s flagship Build Canada Homes program. While we have concerns about how Build Canada Homes is being implemented, there is no question that it has its roots in recommendations made in our NHA and Blueprint for More and Better Homes reports.

Policy Win #9: Better Population Forecasts, Data, and Creation of Housing Targets

MMI team members have been working on housing-related issues since 2017, but our first formal report on the topic was our October 2021 report Baby Needs a New Home. This was followed up by a series of reports, such as Forecast for Failure and Ontario's Ontario’s Need for 1.5 Million More Homes (a full list of reports is available here). These reports raised alarm bells about Ontario’s growing housing shortages, the poor quality of population projections, policy-makers’ underestimation of migration within the province, and the need for housing targets.

Since those reports were released, governments across Canada, including Ontario and British Columbia, as well as the federal government, have set municipal-level housing targets. Furthermore, the province of Ontario has committed to requiring municipalities to use a standard set of population projections, though the province’s methodology for estimating local population growth remains fatally flawed and in desperate need of reform. Let’s hope that 2026 brings those reforms.

MMI has also repeatedly called on the federal government to improve housing-related data, including in both the NHA and Blueprint for More and Better Housing. Recommendation 1d of the NHA specifically called for the “increased funding to Statistics Canada, the CMHC and non-governmental research institutes.”

Based on that recommendation, the federal government added additional funds for data and research in the Canada Housing Plan:

Modernizing Housing Data: All levels of government should be committed to a data-driven response to the housing crisis. To help, Budget 2024 will propose $20 million for Statistics Canada and CMHC to modernize and enhance the collection and dissemination of housing data, including municipal-level data on housing starts and completions.

Policy Win #10: Immigration and Non-Permanent Resident Reform

MMI’s Mike Moffatt had been writing about population growth and intraprovincial (within-province) migration well before the pandemic, including this March 2019 piece on the increasing number of families moving out of the GTA to other parts of Ontario.

Well before the creation of MMI, our team had been raising alarms about the disconnect between Ontario’s rapid population growth, driven by an influx of non-permanent residents and the sluggish increase in the housing stock and the province’s physical and social infrastructure. As far back as 2019, we were referring to this as a “ticking time bomb.” Given the extreme political sensitivities at the time and our own areas of expertise, our focus had been on accelerating housing and infrastructure growth rather than on immigration and international student reforms.

Up to January 2024, we released nine reports, linking population growth and the need for more housing, including:

We also spoke about the issue at both the 2023 and 2024 federal Cabinet retreats, and had numerous podcast episodes on issues related to population growth, including the growth of the Temporary Foreign Worker program. It was not always easy; while some appreciated the discussion, others would get offended at the suggestion that there was any relationship between immigration policy and housing shortages, although we always made it clear that it was the disconnect between immigration policies and housing policies that were responsible for housing shortages, not newcomers to Canada. Despite that, our team received a substantial number of slings and arrows, including an accusation of racism directed towards us at a Cabinet retreat.

Despite this, our concerns have been vindicated by history, and the federal government has made a number of reforms, starting in January 2024, with changes to international student programs, based partly on our research. Marc Miller, the Immigration Minister who enacted those reforms was gracious enough to appear on our podcast in March 2024 and discuss those changes.

There is, however, still a lack of long-term vision and planning in population growth policies. We look forward to conducting further research in this area and working with governments to enact evidence-based policies that can ensure both newcomers and existing residents can thrive.