The first 36 homes for soldiers and their families built as part of the military’s national housing construction program opened Tuesday at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton. The net-zero-emissions-ready apartments mark the first units finished during the first phase of the program, called the Residential Housing Response Plan. It is slated to see 800 new such apartments constructed at nine armed forces locales. Paola Zurro, the chief executive officer of the housing agency, told media on Tuesday at CFB Edmonton there’s an increased need for more military housing, with June and July a peak period for it. “At this point, we’re seeing more than 2,000 applicants on our waitlist for priority 1 and 2, which are the members that are posted at public expense, and another 2,000 across the country ... who would like to access DND (Department of National Defence) housing,” Zurro said. The second phase will see the program expand to include all 27 locations in which the Canadian Forces Housing Agency operates. The new homes are part of a $1.4-billion national plan to modernize military housing. Apartment buildings built under the Residential Housing Response Plan feature high-efficiency heat pumps and heat recovery units, electric vehicle plug-ins for each apartment, the capacity for solar panels and lower-carbon construction materials. The 36 new units at CFB Edmonton are the first of a major planned expansion of military housing in Alberta, which is expected to double the current 1,500 units. CFB Edmonton is expected to receive about 1,100 new units by the mid-2030s. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum
