Evidence of meeting #62 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was poverty.
11:50 a.m.
Coordinator, Yukon Status of Women Council
If I could add to that, my office is in the Victoria Faulkner Women's Centre, which is a women's drop-in centre. On average, I'd say we get a woman coming in there on a daily basis who has nowhere to live. We had women coming in there last winter at minus 50 degrees Celsius who were living in trucks, just camper trucks, or in the cab of their truck, or in a van, or in a cabin that had no windowpanes in the windows or a door that blew open in the wind, etc. These women are not on the waiting list for Yukon Housing. There are very many women who are not on the waiting list for Yukon Housing because they know they would be at the bottom of the list, and it's just another situation that creates more despair.
We have another agency in town called the Grey Mountain Housing Society, which supplies urban aboriginal housing. They're in dire straits. They received no funds from the last federal transfers for housing. A lot of their units are going to be decommissioned for the same reasons Yukon Housing units are being decommissioned: it's just not economically feasible to fix them up any more. I think their projection was that by 2012 they may have no units left.
I don't know where all the people who are living in those homes are supposed to be going, and where all the aboriginal people who continue to come to Whitehorse looking for safety or a better economic opportunity or education are supposed to live. As you know, each first nation is responsible for its own housing.
The current additions Yukon Housing is making to social housing in the Yukon may eliminate the waiting list, but the waiting list does not reflect the reality of the housing situation here in the north. We don't have any minimal rental standards, for instance, so people are living in the most incredible third-world-style poverty here. When I was doing my research study, I had a woman tell me she wasn't homeless; she had four walls around her. It didn't have a roof, but she had four walls, and this was in the dead of a Yukon winter.
There needs to be a heck of a lot more done here in the Yukon in order to decrease homelessness or end homelessness. One homeless person is too many.
11:55 a.m.
Co-Chair, Diocese of Whitehorse, Social Justice Committee at Sacred Heart Cathedral
Certainly, in terms of our community as well, there has been quite a bit of support. We just inaugurated the sixth unit Habitat for Humanity has built here. I don't know whether you've had the opportunity to visit them or look at them. It addresses, again, a low-income need that isn't being addressed by the formal structures that exist, and it's here in the community. The last triplex has had really great cooperation through your organization, as well as Yukon College and the training programs up there. It's been a very happy coincidence, a convergence of goals, but still it just signals the real need that's out there.
In terms of the social housing deficit here, I think the last social housing place, Cyr Place, was 1994. Your accumulated deficit is still a long way from being...and that's here. We're not talking about the communities at all. If you go out to Ross River, to Faro, you're into a whole different game altogether in terms of addressing those fairly fundamental needs. All the basics I'm sure you've heard of in other northern communities, or will hear of--overcrowding, lack of upkeep and maintenance, proper sanitation, etc.--would be mirrored in our communities as well.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
I have one more question before I turn it over to Mike for a last one. I apologize for my ignorance of northern communities, but talk to me about the things that drive the prices of housing beyond what it would seem.... It seems like there's lots of land, but that obviously is not the case. I haven't been to Fort McMurray, but I know there's a huge issue there that seems to be driven by supply and demand. Talk to me about your specific issues and why the cost is $300,000 versus whatever it may be in other communities.
I appreciate the vast geography to get here for supplies, so that must contribute to some of it. Is land at a premium as well? Once again, talk to me about some of those things.
11:55 a.m.
Senior Program Advisor, Yukon Housing Corporation
A myriad of factors come into play. To give you a really good example, we built new units in Dawson City. Because of the permafrost—it's a discontinuous permafrost in that community—they tend to have to dig down 15 to 20 feet. One contractor broke his backhoe trying to excavate a lot. In that case the water kept coming into what would have been the hole for the foundation. We got to the point where we said, “Cover it up and we'll use it for parking.” We expended a lot of money and got nothing out of it.
Everything you see here was manufactured elsewhere. We do not have a manufacturing base. The 18-wheelers come up from Edmonton and southern British Columbia. There are products that other Canadians take for granted because of the manufacturing base--in southern Ontario as well. We do not have that, so we have the additional cost of freight. We have higher costs of labour compared to southern Canada.
Land is generally available. A few years ago we had a real spike in new home construction in Whitehorse. For a temporary period, the Government of Yukon ran out of serviced land. But the cost of taking raw land and servicing it is very high. That increases the cost of land at the start of the process, which then increases the overall cost of housing.
We have a very short window of construction compared to a lot of jurisdictions in southern Canada. For example, we have buildings going up right now, and they're trying to clad them against the weather so they can work inside. They then need to have their Herman Nelsons blowing heat into that building to keep the materials and workers warm so they get a higher level of productivity. If you've ever tried to change a tire at 30 below, try to pound nails and use a saw at 30 below. It's not very productive.
When you add all of the factors together, it costs a lot of money to build in the north. The community spatial index for our most northern community, Old Crow--with Whitehorse based at 100--is 220. So you can look at the difference in what things cost, even within the territory.
There's no one easy answer. It's a lot of things combined.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
I figured that was the case.
Do you have a comment before I turn it over to Mr. Savage?
Noon
Co-Chair, Diocese of Whitehorse, Social Justice Committee at Sacred Heart Cathedral
On that line, there are attempts here to innovate. There has been a pre-fab log housing program here. People have done stack-wall, straw bale, and rammed earth housing, but there's very little incentive to encourage people to innovate, particularly at lower income levels. There have been discussions about creating free-standing housing cooperatives, and other kinds of structures to do it. But how does that happen, and how, at both the federal and territorial levels, are those processes assisted to make it easier for people on low incomes to thrive rather than just survive?
As I said, my work in Chile was in housing programs. Before the Pinochet military dictatorship, the innovation in housing and the things they were doing to provide basic needs in housing were incredible for a third world country. I still think we're behind where they were in the early 1970s in how to encourage people to address those basic needs themselves or in communities.
Noon
Liberal
Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Somebody had mentioned stimulus. We all know that there was this big stimulus budget in January, but it's very telling that all the investments for those who might be considered in need are temporary. The social housing, the extension of EI benefits--those were temporary benefits, whereas all the tax cuts that came in, which disproportionately benefited those in need...those are permanent. The problem is that creates a structural deficit that's going to make it even harder for the government to shake loose money that should be shook loose. In fact, the Minister of Human Resources couldn't wait to make an announcement after the budget to reinforce that this was a one-time government investment in social housing. It did not represent a policy shift to a larger federal role in social housing. We don't have a housing strategy in Canada. We need a national housing strategy.
Charlotte, you were talking about lone-parent families. I'm going to quote from Campaign 2000's report of last week:
While some progress has been achieved, female-led lone parent families carry a disproportionately high burden, with a child poverty rate of 40%--2007 LICO before-tax. Lone mothers face the challenge of being the sole provider while also having to find adequate child care and secure housing, which are often unaffordable. They also struggle to balance education or training, community service, and/or paid work with family responsibilities.
Did you say that 73% of lone-parent aboriginal families live below the LICO? Is that the number you gave?
Noon
Coordinator, Yukon Status of Women Council
Yes. That is from the 2000 figures reported in the 2006 Statistics Canada report.
Noon
Liberal
Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
We don't have your reports yet. They have to be translated and everything else, so I just wanted to clear that up.
I thank you.
Any recommendations that you have, that you've given us, we'll certainly take into consideration in putting our report together.
Thank you, Chair.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you.
Once again to our witnesses, thank you very much for taking time out of your busy day to be here. We realize that a lot of you are on the front lines making things happen, and if it weren't for you, we would be in a much worse place.
We're trying to get ideas to go back to encourage the government to do these things, to move in these directions, and we really appreciate the nuances of what we're hearing. Although we hear an overarching theme, certainly every area has its own issues that are unique to its situations. Thank you for sharing them, and thank you for being with us here today.
We'll be back at 1:30.
The meeting is adjourned.