Prime Minister Mark Carney's government just unveiled a new housing initiative, and Canadians are tearing it apart online.
The PM took to X (formerly Twitter) last week to unveil Canada's "Housing Design Catalogue," a collection of 50 pre-approved home designs aimed at tackling the country's housing crisis.
But the response online was less than enthusiastic — Carney's post sparked a wildfire of criticism, mockery and some surprisingly heated architectural debate.
The Housing Design Catalogue, which has been in the works since late 2023, is a federal initiative designed to speed up the construction of new housing across the country by offering 50 standardized building plans. It features designs for things like row houses, multiplexes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), all supposedly ready to fast-track through municipal approval processes.
It's part of the government's push to fix housing supply issues and make it easier, faster and cheaper to build across different provinces.
In Carney's October 15 post, he said the new catalogue would "streamline approvals, cut through red tape, and get millions more homes built, faster." But the tweet sparked an avalanche of social media backlash — and some of the burns were brutal.
What is the Housing Design Catalogue?
The concept of a "catalogue" of house design plans actually dates back to the postwar era.
After the Second World War, Canada faced a massive housing crunch, and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) began releasing standardized home design catalogues to encourage quick and affordable home builds. Iconic designs like the "Victory Home" became common across suburbs.
Fast-forward to today, and Canada's facing a different kind of housing crisis — affordability, red tape and low supply — so the feds decided to revive the catalogue idea for 2025.
A single-family postwar "Victory Home" (left) and the new design for Ontario Fourplex 02 (right).Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation
The new Housing Design Catalogue features 50 designs, each one tailored to a specific region's building codes, climate and construction styles.
The idea is that pre-approved blueprints can cut down on wait times, planning hurdles and permit delays, making it easier for developers or even homeowners to build something without starting from scratch — kind of like a free architectural starter pack.
According to the CMHC, the designs lean into the "missing middle" — homes that fall somewhere between single-detached houses and massive condo buildings. That includes multiplexes, laneway suites and row homes, all aimed at boosting density in areas where people already live and work.
The designs are modern, minimal and boxy.Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation
The plans are described as "small-scale, space-efficient homes" — and small they are.
The single detached models start at a tiny 493 sq. ft. and max out at just over 1,000 sq. ft. Units within multiplexes and row homes don't seem to get much bigger, either.
Only three of the models include garages, and none have basements. Most are compact, modern, minimalist and... well, boxy.
Social media reactions were not kind
Reactions to the announcement came in fast — and harsh.
One X user summed it up by calling them "shipping containers" — and honestly, it's hard to unsee it.
Several of the rendered homes feature boxy, grey-on-grey exteriors, leading many commenters to compare them to military barracks, old co-op rentals or, as one user put it, "garden sheds from Home Depot."
Commenters were also quick to draw parallels to state-planned housing initiatives from authoritarian and communist regimes, with replies like, "Thank you for turning us into communist East Germany ❤️❤️❤️."
"Eat your heart out North Korea, we are coming for your architectural aesthetic," another added.
Many critics zeroed in on just how small some of the units are, with one in particular drawing a lot of attention — a 493-sq-ft studio ADU labelled as having 0 bedrooms and 1 bathroom.
Another commenter went full poetic with their critique, calling the designs "mass-produced shelter nodes that look like printer errors" and are "built for speed, not for soul."
Meanwhile, others kept it short and bleak.
Yikes.
But not everyone's hating it
Amid all the roasting, though, a few folks stepped up to defend the catalogue, pointing out that standardized, pre-approved designs could genuinely save money and time for builders.
"You used to be able to order a home from Sears and have a kit delivered, still standing today," one user replied. "Not luxury or spacious but decent designs."
Some replies clapped back against the more dramatic takes about Canada becoming some kind of Soviet-style housing dystopia.
Others pointed out that many of these are accessory units — like guest houses or laneway homes — not meant to be lifelong residences for growing families.
And that's kind of the point. According to CMHC, these plans aren't meant to replace dream homes — they're meant to speed up and simplify the process of getting more modest, space-efficient housing into the market.
Many of the designs max out around 1,000 sq. ft. and are aimed at helping municipalities cut red tape, reduce costs and meet their housing targets faster.
Why the backlash?
The reaction probably says more about the mood of the country than the actual catalogue.
Canada's housing crisis has left a lot of people frustrated, priced out and pessimistic about their future. So when they're presented with what looks like a boxy, pre-approved mini house with no garage or basement, it feels like a symbol of lowered expectations — not opportunity.
What's next?
Despite the online roasting, the catalogue is live, and Carney's government seems committed to using it as one of the tools in its housing playbook. The hope is that more municipalities will adopt the designs into their own planning processes, and that developers — small and large — will take advantage of the fast-tracked options.
At the end of the day, the catalogue might not win any design awards — but if it helps cut down the years-long wait for new housing to actually get built, some Canadians might just take the trade-off.
For now, though, it's clear that when it comes to Canada's new Housing Design Catalogue, the discourse is almost as stacked as the sixplexes.