Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Michael Shapcott. I work at the Wellesley Institute, a policy institute in downtown Toronto. I'm here today on behalf of the National Housing and Homelessness Network.
Mr. Chair, if I could, what I'd love to do with my five minutes is take the members of this committee outside. I think there's nothing like a very cold and wet autumn day to convince people that the issues of homelessness and the affordable housing crisis are not good. We know they're not good for people's health, they're not good for the economy, and they're not good for neighbourhoods and communities.
Mr. Chair, on a cold day like today, which I'm sad to say is only the start of what will be a very cold winter, I think this committee really needs to focus on what the United Nations in May called the national emergency of housing and homelessness in Canada.
We submitted a submission back in September, with several recommendations. Before I turn to that, I'd like to with respect make two very specific appeals to this committee on urgent items.
First of all, I'd like to invite members of this committee to make an urgent recommendation in terms of the renewal of federal homelessness and housing rehabilitation funding.
In just a few weeks, of course, the blizzards of winter are going to move across Canada, but literally thousands of agencies that provide critical health and social services to homeless people are going to be forced to shut their doors and lay off staff. It's because the federal homelessness program, which has funded thousands of transitional homes and thousands of health and social services and has provided capital dollars to improve shelter and food programs in 61 communities, is due to sunset, in the words of the bureaucrats, this fiscal year.
It's going to have a devastating impact on communities right across the country, not simply on poor urban neighbourhoods in Vancouver, north Winnipeg, north Halifax, or the east end of Vancouver, but even in the booming province of Alberta, where all indications show the economy is doing very well. I'm sure members of this committee can attest to the fact that there's a housing and homelessness crisis even in the province of Alberta.
The national homelessness program has been under a microscope for more than a year. The verdict is that it's been highly successful and that additional funding is urgently needed. We can't wait until February, when the next federal budget is expected, because by then the services will be lost and homeless people will have been abandoned by the federal government.
I want to appeal to this committee today to send a strong message about the federal homelessness program and, secondly, a strong message involving the federal housing rehabilitation program, which is also due to sunset in fiscal 2006.
Over the last number of decades, this program has helped many hundreds of thousands of low-income homeowners and owners of rental property to fix up substandard properties. I don't need to tell members of this committee that it's far less expensive to offer modest rehabilitation assistance than it is to allow properties to deteriorate so badly they have to be demolished and rebuilt.
In my final moments, I want to turn to the submission we made in September and urge this committee to make a healthy and competitive Canada a top priority. In doing that, we believe this committee needs to address and work towards the creation of a comprehensive, fully funded, and permanent national housing program.
We want to acknowledge that in 2005, through Bill C-48, $1.6 billion was allocated to affordable housing, and that was a good step forward. We now know that $1.4 billion of the $1.6 billion has finally been allocated in trust funds, and that's a step forward as well. There's $200 million missing somewhere, and someone might want to look for that. It is a down payment and a very important down payment, but it's only a fraction of what's required to address the urgent housing needs across the country.
Our recommendations for the 2006 pre-budget consultations urge this committee to top up money for affordable housing, to extend the federal homelessness program, and to extend the federal housing rehabilitation program.
I want to point out that since the last time I was at this committee, a remarkable consensus has been emerging across Canada. It's not merely the homeless and their friends and advocates who are calling for a national housing strategy. It's all across the community. It's charitable organizations and faith groups. It's business organizations at the national level, such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, business organizations, such as the TD Bank, and local business organizations, such as the Toronto Board of Trade.
If I may, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to close with a quote from the Toronto Board of Trade wherein they say:
Ultimately the supply of affordable housing affects the success of all businesses. Along with other infrastructure components, it helps to determine whether or not companies and employees locate in the city. A lack of affordable housing can lead to a host of other, more serious social and economic problems.
I think we're seeing that happening in Alberta even as we speak.
I'd be pleased to answer any questions or offer more details of our recommendations on the housing priorities of Canadians. Thank you for the opportunity to make these submissions.