Thank you for having us and for allowing us to participate in the committee's work and to highlight the importance of housing in the current crisis and its effect on the country's public finances.
For those who are not familiar with the Association des groupes de ressources techniques du Québec, it is an association that brings together 25 technical resource groups, or TRGs, throughout Quebec. TRGs are social economy enterprises that, for more than 40 years, have contributed to the creation of nearly 100,000 community housing units in the form of cooperatives and non-profit housing organizations, which account for nearly half of the social housing stock in Quebec. They also have a number of community real estate projects under their belt, including multi-purpose community centres and early childhood centres.
TRGs have been at the heart of housing project development for nearly 40 years. We are present at all stages of the housing project implementation process, from the recognition of needs to the support of projects, to funding arrangements, the supervision of the site, the creation of groups, as well as property and financial management. For 40 years, TRGs have been acting as catalysts to build housing projects that meet the diverse needs of the most vulnerable populations and of all communities.
The construction of community and social housing can have a very significant impact on public finances. Your study is timely, since we, along with a number of Quebec housing stakeholders, took part in missions to Europe last fall. We looked at what was being done elsewhere—in France, Denmark and Austria, among other places. We often find that the integrated model for building social and community housing in Quebec is ahead of the other models in Canada, and we want to spread it across the country, but we realize that, even in Quebec, we are light years behind the capacity of certain European countries in this area. All these countries recognize the importance of social and community housing as a tool to fight inflation and prevent the escalation of crises such as the one we are experiencing today.
I'm happy to be speaking after Mrs. Houle because I completely agree with her economic argument. In addition, community housing helps strengthen our country and our values and enables us to go further by ensuring affordable housing for everyone, by reducing pressure on the market and by meeting a fundamental right. When you have housing that costs less, you free up economic space and you increase household purchasing power. Rent is the first thing people pay, since housing is at the heart of Maslow's pyramid. So when it stays low, people can meet all their basic needs, such as clothing and food, and take care of their children.
Maintaining an affordable housing stock for the most disadvantaged people gives them greater purchasing power. Some quick math shows that the average rent in Vienna is easily 200 euros less than it is here, in equivalent dollars. This represents a significant monthly economic contribution for people, who are then freer to make investments and participate in economic life, and who enjoy a better quality of life. Social housing in Europe is for people who are not rich, not just for the most vulnerable or specific clienteles. People in countries where social housing is well developed have some of the best standards of living in the world.
It is important to make investments to catch up, but just because we are in a crisis does not mean that we have to do things wrong. We need to have a plan and long-term objectives.
In France, the objective is to have 20% social housing in municipalities with a population of more than 1,000. In the city of Vienna, 60% of the housing is social housing. In Denmark, the fund for the construction of social housing has made announcements, since the construction of social housing has an impact on the gross domestic product and the construction industry.
Planning construction during crises or down times leads to better economic outcomes, not only in terms of GDP, development and maintenance, but also in terms of the price on the market, which can increase purchasing power.
In France, they have livret A, a savings booklet that helps support the construction of social housing. From the moment they are born, all French citizens participate in the economy and ensure a good retirement for themselves, while ensuring that the rest of the population is well housed. Labour taxes also make it possible to make additional contributions in order to build housing without having to eat into the government's entire operating budget.
My message to you is that we are light years away from that. We have a lot of work to do to ensure the resumption of community and social housing construction, while preserving our values. The housing crisis makes that necessary. We have to stop thinking about affordability; we have to think about the tool that enables affordable living environments. So we hope that social and community housing will be part of your solutions, given that, in the long term, it is a major component of the solution to the housing crisis.
Thank you.