So my general view is that if there's a way for the local authorities and the local not-for-profits to have the freedom to do what they want to do, that is the best option all the time.
Let me make one reference to the Calgary Homeless Foundation. This is not run by government public officials. This is not run by politicians. It is run by retired CEOs and others from the oil companies, tax lawyers, and people involved with local church organizations. They said that it is not acceptable that there are 250 people sleeping on the street in London, England, and there are 500 people sleeping on the street in Calgary. They also said that it is odd to have 2,500 people in a hostel every night, which gets 40 bucks per head--the Sally Ann gets it--for doing a great job providing that emergency housing. If you add up 365 times 40 times 2,500, you actually get a fair amount of money to do something with in housing, and a much better response.
They have put together a mix of private sector and not-for-profits. They're getting old buildings and redoing them. They get some help from government. They're saying that since you have that vacant land, why don't you give it to us at a notional cost so that we can...?
By the way, this is what local organizations can do that government can't do. The Homeless Foundation said they were going to eradicate homelessness in 10 years--not help it, not make it a little better, but eradicate it. Their definition is that nobody stays in a hostel for more than seven days before they find a place. So far, after year one, they're at 15% of their target.
I agree with you that we have to have a frame of reference whereby the local organizations can go about it.
I think it was regrettable--but I understand why he felt he had to do it--that Finance Minister Martin slashed all the investment in social housing. This fellow was a mayor who actually invested a lot of municipal funds in social housing when he was the mayor of Toronto. It was a terrible thing they did. They felt they had no choice.
I am proud of my government for beginning to reinvest. But I would like to see that happen in a way that gives the local municipalities and the local not-for-profits the most freedom possible to make their decisions and doesn't tie them to bureaucratically defined conditions, which actually don't work outside the Ottawa bubble anyway.
That would be my preference.