Policy Report and Profile Series on Canadian Community Land Trusts

Background

While there is growing interest in CLTs as an innovative housing solution, the project responded to gaps in comparative and policy-oriented literature on how regulatory frameworks, zoning systems, and building codes influence CLT implementation and scalability in Canada. This project resulted in one policy paper tackling critical issues around CLT development and five shorter CLT profiles documenting the models of particular CLTs to CLT practitioners and policymakers across Canada.

Methodology

The project commissioned one policy paper and five practitioner profiles from researchers and practitioners across Canada, coordinated in partnership with CNCLT to ensure relevance to the CLT sector. The commissioned papers are:

1. Reclaim, Remain (Nat Pace and Jane O’Brien Davis, Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts) offers an overview of six BIPOC-led CLTs across Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Nova Scotia, documenting their early-stage organizing efforts and their pathways toward collective land stewardship and decolonized land practice.

2. CLT Definitions (Meagan Auger, J.D.) explores the legal definitions of CLTs globally and evaluates the case for establishing a legal framework for CLTs in Canada.

3. More Than Just Affordable Housing: The Emergence of Indigenous Community Land Trusts, Land Back, and Healing (Margaret Low and Tiana Lewis, School of Regional and Urban Planning, UBC) documents the innovations and challenges of Indigenous Community Land Trusts (ICLTs) in Canada, and how CLTs can build stronger relationships with Indigenous Nations and communities.

4. Community Land Trust Foundation of British Columbia (CLTFBC) Case Study (Penny Gurstein, Professor Emeritus, UBC) examines how CLTFBC’s structure and approach provide secure, community-oriented housing through cooperative housing.

5. Community Land Trusts in Canada: Responses and Resistance to Gentrification (Susannah Bunce and Emma Ezvan, School of Cities, University of Toronto) examines how CLTs resist displacement and preserve community spaces amid decades of gentrification pressure in Canadian neighbourhoods

6. A Case for Community Land Trusts in Canada: Promising Community Practices and Public Policy Options (Kuni Kamizaki, University of British Columbia) identifies the CLT model’s core advantages for permanently affordable housing and provides a policy framework for governments to implement a community-controlled approach

Results

The series documents how community land trusts are emerging and scaling across Canada. Approximately 45 CLTs now operate nationally, and more than 60% have emerged or are nearing launch within the past five years. The papers examine BIPOC-led and Indigenous CLTs, the legal definition of a CLT, resistance to gentrification, and the Community Land Trust Foundation of British Columbia’s co-op model. Together, they show CLTs as a community-controlled route to permanent affordability and land stewardship.

The series concludes with eight policy recommendations, including long-term affordability requirements in housing programs, systematic transfer of public land to CLTs, streamlined acquisition funding, and a distinct legal designation for CLTs. Outputs include six papers, podcast episodes, blog posts, a research webinar, and presentations at the CNCLT’s annual summit.