Human Resources committee  First, having no strategy and no policy isn't going to get us there. Having a policy and having a strategy is no guarantee, but I also point to Quebec and the example of the Solidarité 5000 logements program. I think Quebec took great pride as a province in saying that they would

Human Resources committee  As for what we've seen, the reference was made by your colleague from Quebec to a period when there was no federal investment in new affordable housing in Canada. The experience from that period showed us that when the federal government does not invest and does not take a leader

Human Resources committee  Thank you. First of all, I would like to congratulate members of Parliament for bringing this bill through two readings and to committee. It's really very exciting for an organization like ours to see that this has come to this point, and we're excited to be here. I want to st

Human Resources committee  Absolutely, and I'll let Nicholas or someone else speak to it as well. I would say that a lot of the focus should be placed on assisting municipalities, municipal staff and councillors, to address this locally.

Human Resources committee  Well, on the second point, Canadians in general—and we talk a lot about this, actually—need to become much more aware of the importance of affordable housing to the full society, that everyone benefits when people are well housed. On that point, yes, I think we would love to see

Human Resources committee  Yes, I referred to the Toronto Community Housing redevelopment of Regent Park in particular.

Human Resources committee  I don't have the percentages at my fingertips, but I can tell you that the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, which is an independent corporation at arm's length from the city, attracted a private developer as a financing and risk-taking partner in that project. It was a larg

Human Resources committee  I would say that one of the keys to the success of that initiative was that it was very well planned. It was planned over a long timeframe. It was also a very large project, and that helped. But I would say that there is much more potential to engage the private sector if we have

Human Resources committee  I'll speak briefly first. On the positive side, Nicholas and I, and some others, had the privilege of speaking to the provincial and territorial ministers in the fall. Most of the provinces and territories are anxious to see a national housing policy framework put in place. I t

Human Resources committee  I certainly agree that we need an accountability framework that sets out measurables, targets, and milestones. However, we believe that the provinces and territories need to take lead responsibility for negotiating those, setting them out, and having them set in agreements. So I

Human Resources committee  One of the challenges we have when we talk about addressing and ending homelessness is the difficulty in measuring homelessness. I said yes quickly to your suggestion when I talked about the increasing incidence of homelessness. We believe it is increasing, but it is very, very

Human Resources committee  Okay, I was gearing myself through the ten minutes, but I'll do my best.

Human Resources committee  Well, Nicholas did me a good service that might speed things along a little bit by making the connection very well between housing and poverty reduction, so I won't go there. Thanks very much, Nicholas. All of my presentation will be focused on housing specifically as a poverty