Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members. I'm pleased to be here with you.
I want to first of all introduce my colleague, Steve Pomeroy, who is president of Focus Consultants and also heads up the production of our magazine, Canadian Housing.
It's no secret that the lack of affordable housing is a major issue in this country. We hear daily about homelessness, about the walks among the homeless to count them, and about the devastating effects on families of not being able to plan their futures, get their kids the kinds of services they need, into schools where they can learn, and be in neighbourhoods that will provide them with support.
In Vancouver, for example, there's been an over 200% increase in street homelessness between 2002 and 2006. In Calgary it's been the same, at a 238% increase in street homelessness between 2004 and 2006. Over two years we've seen this increase, and this is not in people who are sheltered, but this is in people who are living on the streets. This is done by doing a street count one day a year.
We have a major issue to deal with. This government has recently invested $1.4 billion into affordable housing in the form of trusts, which I congratulate you for. I think that's phenomenal and well needed, but we have to ask how well this money is going to be spent and if it's sufficient for the kinds of challenges we face. When I talk about challenges, I'm not only looking at homelessness, I'm also talking about challenges in bringing workers to where the jobs are, reducing health care costs, building safer cities, building more security, and attracting the right kind of talent so that we can create good jobs in this country. There are all kinds of challenges we have, which this government ought to be, and I know is, concerned about, that can be addressed in some way through investing in affordable housing.
I think when you invest in affordable housing you should look at what those outcomes are going to be and you should find a way of measuring those outcomes. And I would argue that for the recent dollars invested that will go to the provinces, the accountability isn't as strong as it could be. I was very pleased to see that the government wants to make sure that money goes to just new housing. I think it's an improvement over the prior program, where that didn't have to be the case.
There is a desire and a recognition that we need more units of housing created. But if this government is really interested in attracting immigrants, attracting jobs, and building more secure cities, you might want to look at other outcomes that you can get with that investment and make sure you're getting what you ought to be getting. I think there are ways of doing that.
Housing investment has declined over the years. We're now down to producing about 6,000 units of housing a year versus 25,000 that we produced up until the end of the 1980s. At that time we also had, as you know, the private sector more involved, and there were years when up to 80,000 units of rental housing were being produced. Now, year in, year out, it's under 10,000. So it's no wonder we have major problems.
But I think the federal interest in housing goes well beyond providing shelter. It includes things like immigration, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, health, early childhood learning opportunities, reductions in the use of correctional centres, security, and also a very strong economic case. In many countries housing policies in 2006 are far more robust than they were in 2000, but Canada has actually worked towards a decline in housing investment and housing policy. The national government hasn't even declared that it has a strategy or what its real interests in housing are, which go well beyond the social policy concerns that provinces and territories have, and I think it can do that.
Other countries have invested because with globalization came these incredible growths in revenue and income. You saw that in Canada, which was fabulous, but that also came with growth in inequality, with income concentrations in many of our cities. We're starting to see that and understand the kind of problem it creates around investment, around homelessness, and a whole host of issues. I think Canada as a country and you as a federal government can't completely wash your hands of housing because you will be giving away one of the greatest tools you have for effecting changes in cities. I think you must look at these other outcomes you can achieve.
I have very little time. We have sunsetting programs that have to be renewed. We support the renewal of the SCPI program--I know you're well aware of it--as well as the RRAP program.
One final point I'll make is around legacy savings.
I have talked to various members about this. We are beginning to see that, with existing social housing, mortgages are being paid down and savings are being created.
The previous Conservative government under Mulroney, when Wilson was finance minister, told us that any savings we could have had could be reinvested in social housing. Savings were made in social housing, and we haven't been able to reinvest those savings. I would like to see this government go back to that kind of commitment.
Thank you.