Human Resources Committee on Feb. 17th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I call the meeting to order.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), as per the decision voted upon by this committee back in June, we are continuing our study on poverty and poverty reduction.

I'm very pleased to be in Maple Ridge, B.C., and to be hosted by my colleague and sometime friend, Dan Ruimy. It's really a pleasure to be here. We drove by and saw his office on the way in, which was very nice, very well placed.

I do apologize for being late. We were at a shelter this morning. I'm going to blame Wayne just because it's easy. He just kept asking questions, but we learned a lot.

We have a fantastic full list of witnesses here today. We have Stephen Elliott-Buckley from Simon Fraser University's labour studies department. He is appearing as an individual. Welcome, sir.

From the City of Maple Ridge, we have Nicole Read, mayor. Welcome. Nice to see you again, Your Worship.

From Covenant House Vancouver, we have John Harvey, director of program services. Welcome.

From Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services, we have Vicki Kipps, executive director. Welcome.

Last but not least, from the Township of Langley, we have William R. Storie, senior adviser to council, corporate administration. That's quite the business card, sir. Welcome.

Each of you will have about seven minutes to provide an introduction. After everyone has had a turn to do that, I'm sure many of us will have a series of questions. They are timed. If you see me put the mike on, it's an indication that we're either out of time or will very soon be out of time. Often I will have to cut off my colleagues.

Without further ado, we're going to start with Stephen Elliott-Buckley from Simon Fraser University. The next seven minutes are yours, sir.

[Stephen Elliott-Buckley, Simon Fraser University, Labour Studies Department, As an Individual]

Thank you very much for your invitation to speak with you today.

While I grew up and taught high school in the Tri-Cities down the street, I now live in East Vancouver, on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish people, and particularly the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

For the last four years I've been teaching a third-year undergraduate labour studies course at Simon Fraser University called “The Politics of Labour”. I spent much of the time in the course exploring the nature of precarious work among public sector support workers in B.C. and how intersectionality aggravates an already difficult labour market. I also have the privilege of sitting on the steering committee of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition in the only province or territory that has no poverty reduction plan.

Today I'd like to share four ideas with you that are framed by something Stuart McLean once said in an interview: “When I’m not writing my stories, that’s what I think about all the time—the politics of this country and what we have done together.”

The first idea I have for you today is about what we do together, and that's building a better Canada through the federal government's demonstrating strong advocacy and tangible leadership. Generally, I'm pleased to hear about the federal plans for a national poverty reduction strategy as well as a national housing strategy, as well as collaboration with all levels of government, but in 1989 the House of Commons voted unanimously to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000; that was a noble goal, but we didn't solve child poverty by then or by today. Strong federal advocacy and leadership mean doing more than making a pledge.

When the finance minister said Canadians need to get used to job churn, we feel demoralized that even the federal government has given up on pursuing an economy that works for people, where people have hope and faith in stable, rewarding work, instead of precarious work in a world of increasing income and wealth inequality.

The second idea is about collaboration and inclusion. Our country is at an inflection point right now in a world threatening to move away from multilateral co-operation. Instead of creating bilateral plans with provinces, territories, regions, or cities, leadership from the federal government means hosting broad multilateral dialogue and goal-setting with all levels of government. Now is the time for the federal government to facilitate a pan-Canadian approach to poverty reduction, with universal targets and financial support to the provinces and territories, to avoid inconsistent approaches to poverty around the country.

While the committee is including an analysis of the impact of gender on poverty, I expect you'll need to broaden your lens to examine intersectionality more fully. Oppression, domination, and discrimination affect people differently not only because of gender but also because of race, ethnicity, indigeneity, class, sexuality, geography, age, disability, ability, migration status, religion, etc.

As a university-educated white male from an upper-middle-class upbringing, I'm uniquely unqualified to speak on behalf of people who experience intersections of power relations and discrimination. Beyond having people who have lived with poverty on your advisory committee, you need to include people who are still living in poverty. The Single Mothers' Alliance BC has been running listening projects to hear from people's real experiences. The committee should establish listening projects in all parts of the country if you truly wish to hear how poverty is affecting people.

The third idea is to manifest collaborative and co-operative principles in building more robust and democratic homes, communities, and economies. I know that some CMHC representatives have spoken to the committee and that the executive director of the Co-op Housing Federation of BC will be here this afternoon. Reinvesting in renewable, existing co-op housing, as well as helping finance new co-op housing, will create more economic and human stability even in places not experiencing the affordability crises happening in Toronto and Vancouver. The federal government can also support co-housing developments that build community resilience right inside a community housing model.

There are other poverty-fighting economic models that deserve federal government support. Worker co-operatives, for instance, provide a structure for economic empowerment for individuals as well as democratic workplaces. The Canadian Worker Co-op Federation's Tenacity Works revolving investment fund helps new and expanding worker co-ops, and with the large generation of business owners in the midst of retiring, the federal government can educate owners to consider selling their businesses to co-operatives made up of their workers.

Unions also play a key role in fighting poverty and creating stronger community and economic resilience. The federal government has a unique role to fight the demoralization of job churn and rising income inequality by being a tangible leader and a model for the rest of the country by protecting defined benefit pensions, organizing and collective bargaining rights, and successorship rights.

The fourth idea is to make reconciliation tangible. That's part of what Stuart McLean spoke of when said he thought about what we have done together. The physical and social infrastructure deficit on reserves is appalling because we have not yet fixed this together. Again, the federal government must lead us all by engaging in multilateral collaborations with first nations communities. Funding for homes, schools, health care facilities, community centres, and other physical and social infrastructure on reserves cannot wait for a future generation that feels sufficiently compelled to tackle our complicity in their poverty.

I'd like to end with another way of looking at collaboration. The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition has a seven-pillar approach to a poverty reduction plan: higher wages, welfare, housing, child care, health, education, and structural barriers that marginalize people. All the pillars are connected. Reducing and eliminating poverty means looking at all these policy areas through a poverty reduction lens. We can no longer afford to address poverty in a disjointed manner.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much. I appreciate and thank you for the homage to Stuart McLean. We were travelling when we heard of his passing. He is truly a Canadian treasure that will be missed. Thank you for that.

Moving on, we are joined today by the mayor of the city of Maple Ridge, Nicole Read.

The next seven minutes are yours.

[Nicole Read, Mayor, City of Maple Ridge]

Thank you.

I'd like to start by acknowledging that we're here today on the unceded territory of the Katzie First Nation and Kwantlen First Nation, with whom we have strong partnerships.

In planning for coming here today, I did touch base with one of our chiefs, Chief Susan Miller, and they are concerned about funding for post-secondary education for their band members. I wanted to carry that forward, but I have no doubt that you will be hearing from many first nations on this issue of poverty in our country.

As you have noted, I am mayor of the city of Maple Ridge. I'm also the co-chair of the metro Vancouver regional task force on homelessness. I am a Canadian historian who has worked for almost 20 years in the area of aboriginal issues, most notably as the former project manager for document collection for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian residential schools. I'm also mother to two children, and I try to instill values of social conscience in them every day.

I grew up in a cycle of poverty. I broke that cycle of poverty through post-secondary education. While I will not be focusing my talk today on post-secondary education, it is something that our community needs. Our citizens need very close access to post-secondary education. Post-secondary education, as we all know, breaks the cycle of poverty. I'm going to come back to that in a different play a little later.

I'd like to thank you for your renewed interest in poverty reduction and for the work being done by the federal government on the national housing strategy. I had the pleasure of meeting again with Minister Duclos. This is the third time I've had the opportunity to engage him on issues of housing. He is a wonderful representative for the government on this issue.

I'd like to note the 2010 report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. I've reviewed that report in full. It is a road map.

I appreciate that everybody is here engaging the public again. It's been seven years since that was delivered. It's a good time to check in with the public. However, I strongly encourage you to get moving on some of the things that were identified in 2010.

I don't really have a lot new to say, which is an indication that there was some extensive public engagement. We do have a sense of the levers to alleviate poverty in our country.

Because of the tight time frame, I'm going to focus on homelessness. This is an issue that has significantly impacted us in our city and definitely in metro Vancouver. I understand that you will be taking a tour of the shelter, and I'm going to speak to that in a few minutes.

Metro Vancouver has over 60,000 households in the region that spend over half of their income on housing. Over 100,000 people accessed food banks here in 2016. Close to 65,000 people in metro Vancouver received income assistance in 2016. Income assistance has not increased in nine years, while the average market rent has increased every year since 2010. These are significant issues that we face. Our homeless numbers are increasing. In the 2014 homeless count, we had just under 3,000 people who were homeless. We expect these numbers to be at or over 4,000 people in our count, which is coming, with statistics being reported at the end of March.

For metro Vancouver, one of the most significant parcels of funding we are allocated is the homelessness partnering strategy funding. It's important funding for our region, and it's money that we are able to allocate ourselves. I have heard mention of this money potentially being run through the province, and I'm here to say that it's very important that metro Vancouver be able to maintain control over that funding.

There are some challenges with the funding. There is 65% of the funding that is allocated to Housing First. That is great; we know that Housing First works. However, Housing First doesn't work alone. There are health supports that are needed. Youth do not fit well into the 65% Housing First allocation. We would like to see some greater flexibility around the allocation of funding for homelessness in our region beyond that 65% allocation to Housing First.

In addition to that, we are not able to roll over money. We used to be able to roll over money from year to year. I think it's really important. To be able to roll over any unused funding would be a quick win for us to deal with homelessness in this region.

To speak to the issue of unused funding, which is very important, it usually happens because service providers spend an awful lot of their time just writing applications for grant funding. The grants are short in their time span. It doesn't give them enough real ability to plan and wrap good programs and systems around things. We have some real concerns when we find a program is undersubscribed and we know that the numbers within the region should be saying otherwise. I think we need to create strategies that allow for service providers, who are absolutely critical in this area, to have better long-term planning ability on longer-term contracts.

We have very significant gaps in the housing continuum, so the national housing strategy is obviously critical for our area. We need housing. We need it built yesterday, so we're going to have some real time catching up. We need affordable housing for seniors. We need affordable housing with three-bedroom apartments for children. We know that we're dealing in metro Vancouver with Syrian refugee families who have upwards of 10 children, and we're putting them into two-bedroom apartments. That's not working. The faster we can get housing built, the better.

We also want to see incentives for the market to be able to build rentals. Rentals are really important. In Maple Ridge we are looking at around $900 for a one-bedroom basement suite. That is not affordable. The shelter allowance, as you well know, is $375 a month. Without a rent supplement that is high enough and for a long enough term, we can't easily get people into housing.

In Maple Ridge and in metro Vancouver, we have a significant number of gaps. You can build all the housing for people who are poor and people who are homeless, but at the end of the day, we're seeing a massive increase in the number of entrenched, chronically ill, homeless street people. We need health supports for that, especially mental health supports in this province, which are badly lacking in the region covered by Fraser Health. In their strategic plan, they note themselves that we have roughly 50,000 severely addicted mentally ill people, a percentage of whom are on our streets every day, and not nearly enough beds to support that number. We would like to see a funding commitment from the federal government around mental health, and we would like to see some standards from a leadership perspective from the federal government out to the provinces. We need our province to have a poverty reduction strategy, but we also need our province to honour their commitments in the area of mental health.

We know that preventing homelessness is a lot cheaper than trying to reverse it, so I need to speak today to the issue of children. For example, 40% of homeless youth have been part of the child welfare system. We have an awful lot of children in care. In Maple Ridge, among our homeless people, the greatest number were formerly children in care. The children are not getting the attention they need early on. We're seeing it every day.

I know that education is not within the purview of the federal government and that it's a provincial issue. However, as Canadians and as a federal government, we set standards for the treatment of our children across the board everywhere in this country. We have so many children, my own included, who are twice-exceptional—gifted and with a learning disability—who are in our school system and struggling every day, be it with anxiety or be it with undiagnosed, unsupported learning disabilities. These children struggle into their teens. Then they are subject to entering pathways that lead them to homelessness.

We also have a lot of children in our schools here in Maple Ridge who are in foster care. They need extra support. A lot of times, those in our education system are front-line identifiers for some of the challenges that children are struggling with at home. We need to be able to create programs that actually identify and are able to support our children.

Sadly, in our city we needed to reduce the number of children who were unable to access quick psychological or psychiatric care and who needed people to talk to, so our community and its citizens have paid for a youth mental wellness facility. I don't think it's the responsibility of our citizens, as wonderful as they are, or our city, as wonderful as I think it is, to have to pay for mental health care for our youth. We need that youth mental wellness centre funded, and we don't really care who funds it. We'd like to see funding from both levels of government. We have reduced the wait times in our city. It's been an extremely successful pilot, something that could probably be carried out in other cities. Our kids are able to walk in off the street and speak to someone when they need that. That's a really significant issue for us.

The shelter that you will visit today does not meet the standards of our commitments as Canadians under the United Nations conventions. We have a very significant announcement coming at one o'clock. We have had two commitments from our provincial government to build supportive housing for these people. Eighteen of the people who are in that temporary shelter that you will be visiting are from a Cliff Avenue homeless camp that resolved in October of 2015. Those people have been in that shelter for a year and a half. Five more are over at the Salvation Army. They were also in that camp. These people suffer from very significant mental health and addiction issues. We've been told by the experts in our provincial government that these people must be given supportive housing.

Two proposals that have been brought forward for supportive housing have failed because our citizens are uncomfortable having people with this magnitude of a problem living in their neighbourhood. We have to work as governments to reduce the stigma so that we're able to build the services that people need to get well.

I think that when you visit the shelter, you need to keep in mind that we have commitments under these international human rights conventions for housing, treatment, and displacement of people, and it's very significant that this is the situation we find ourselves in after two years of dealing with our provincial government. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

Now, from Covenant House Vancouver, we have the director of program services, Mr. John Harvey.

[John Harvey, Director, Program Services, Covenant House Vancouver]

Thank you.

I would like to thank the standing committee for this opportunity to participate in this consultation process for the study of poverty reduction strategies.

I would like to briefly provide some context on Covenant House Vancouver and the work that we do as it relates to the subject matter of the committee.

We've been in existence since 1997. We serve approximately 1,300 youth, ages 16 to 24, and we provide a continuum of services ranging from outreach and drop-in services to short-term residential crisis beds and supportive transitional housing. We also provide professional, outcome-focused case management services for mental health and addiction, clinical assessments and referrals, life skills, housing support, education, and employment readiness.

We are privately funded. Over 90% of our funding is private, and every public dollar that we receive is leveraged nine to one by private funding. Last year we turned away 314 individual youth because of not enough beds, and we are on track to exceed that number this year.

Having read the poverty reduction plan, it is my view that many of the recommendations within the report will go a long way to resolving poverty within our nation. That said, I'd still like to comment on a few of the recommendations and focus on a couple of things that I believe will be particularly transformational and impactful if adopted.

With respect to defining and measuring poverty, it was noted in the report that the conceptualization and measurement of poverty is complex and continues to be a source of debate among poverty reduction advocates, social policy analysts, and policy-makers. The Parliament of Canada website states that in Canada the federal government has endorsed no official measurement of poverty. The question then arises, how do we meaningfully talk about poverty if we don't have a common language around poverty and a set of metrics to measure the impact of any and all of our efforts toward reducing poverty?

In Canada, policy, research, and program development are informed by several different metrics. While all of these metrics serve a purpose in understanding poverty-related issues at some level, they are all focused on societal deficits that serve to direct our attention to what is not working. Another way to measure would take a strength-based approach that would direct our attentions to building upon the strengths of our society that are known to reduce poverty and improve our quality of life. The report highlighted the Canadian index of well-being as an example. Regardless of what methods we adopt, the axiom “you can't fix what you don't measure” rings true here.

A large focus within government policy over the years has been to eliminate and control the burden of debt and avoid passing debt to our children and future generations, and rightly so. In the same way, why would we not share the same urgency and concern of not passing on the burden and cost of unaddressed homelessness and poverty for future generations?

Costly public policy issues and negative impacts that are associated with poverty include homelessness, welfare costs, increased unemployment, child poverty rates, social exclusion, mental health problems, addictions, and crime. We must look at the solutions to poverty as having economic opportunities that will also pay social dividends because they are both related. By investing in our human capital, we can increase workforce participation and production, which will have a corresponding impact on our tax revenues.

For example, we know that if a child is educated to post-secondary, the long-term economic impact is profound. It is estimated that over 40% of homeless youth have been involved with child welfare services. We know that in excess of 50% of homeless youth did not complete high school. The Conference Board of Canada has estimated that a child aging out of the foster care system will earn $326,000 less income over the course of their lifespan compared with the average Canadian. Further in the same report, it was estimated that by investing in the education of the estimated 2,291 youth who aged out of government care in 2011, the government would save $65.5 million in social assistance payments and raise an additional $169 million in income taxes, as well as another $54 million in consumption taxes.

We also know that poverty is intergenerational. Changing the trajectory of a homeless youth through education will work to stem the future intergenerational impact of the individual youth's children.

The youth we see at Covenant House have hopes and dreams for a better quality of life and future. When given the opportunity to pursue their ambitions, which includes becoming educated, they take advantage of it and pursue careers within business, the hospitality industry, trade work, culinary arts, engineering, film and media, the arts, and emergency and medical services.

It is time to focus on a different perspective and approach to dealing with poverty. In addressing poverty, we must pursue a holistic approach and address the root causes of the issue and not just the symptoms. We cannot continue dealing with the acute symptoms on a short-term basis and expect to achieve long-term success. Rather, we must commit to identifying and treating root causes on a longer-term basis in order to find sustainable solutions.

We need to move into generational thinking on this issue, thinking 20 or 30 years out. We need to take a balanced and sustainable approach that employs all the strengths of our society and not just see government as responsible for creating the solutions. We will need long-term leadership and champions who will find a way to manage political changes, economic conditions, and shifts in policy priorities. We must continue to develop ongoing targets in performance metrics that are continually measured and provide accountability.

Where do we start? To my mind, we will need to take a balanced approach that will choose initiatives having an immediate impact in reducing poverty as well as initiatives that will take longer to realize a return on the investment. However, our priority should be to get upstream of poverty, which will work to alleviate the economic and social costs associated with managing the crises of poverty.

Relative to our experience at Covenant House Vancouver, these might include things such as programs and initiatives that will keep at-risk youth from dropping out of school; investments and incentives to afford post-secondary education and training to all Canadian youth and untapped labour pools; effective family supports to mitigate and reduce the need to put children in care in the first place; for youth who do end up in care, ensuring that they are effectively supported to exit out of care successfully and transition into healthy adulthood; adopting a systems approach within our mental health and addictions services to ensure immediate, effective, and ongoing support to reduce the demoralizing effects of relapse; a national housing and homelessness strategy; and developing a common understanding and measurements of poverty.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you, Mr. Harvey.

From Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services, we have executive director Vicki Kipps.

[Vicki Kipps, Executive Director, Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services]

Thank you very much for including me in today's presentation to the committee.

I represent a multi-service social services charity called Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services. We have a charitable history of serving the communities of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows for over 46 years. On an annual basis, we serve approximately 12,000 individuals by offering more than 31 different programs that address needs in the community. Our client-centred services support the various ages and stages and circumstances of life, including child development, parenting, victim services, mental health services, support for people with developmental disabilities, youth and parents in conflict, aboriginal services, and seniors services.

Our programs and services embrace five key values: community, compassion, excellence, growth, and respect. For the most part, our organization serves as a safety net for individuals and families who strive to live successful lives despite overwhelming obstacles, including risks relating to homelessness, poverty, food security, mental health, isolation, and struggling to cope. A high percentage of our clients live in poverty, facing complex needs and challenges.

According to the United Way of the Lower Mainland's free helpline, the top areas of need identified by Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows residents were housing and homelessness, substance use, health, mental health, and government services.

As stated by Ontario's minister responsible for poverty reduction strategy, poverty has many faces and there are countless circumstances that lead to poverty, but we know there is one overarching path out of poverty, which is realizing human potential. Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services has a mission to support and empower individuals and families to realize their potential and achieve self-reliance.

I'd like to highlight our work with young victims, youth, and seniors. With the help of community partnerships, we offer a program called “Alisa's wish”. Alisa's Wish Child and Youth Advocacy Centre provides a child-friendly environment for children and youth who experience sexual and physical violence. They receive support services at one location from one integrated team of professionals. The reason I'm raising this particular program is that Alisa's Wish and other advocacy centres like it have received federal funding, which is critical to the development and sustainability of these valuable community programs. I want to stress the positive impacts that this centre is having in our community, such as improved forensic interviewing, improved case information presented to crown counsel, and improved outcomes for young victims and their non-offending family members. For example, by offering trauma-informed services that are time sensitive and accessible, we're aiding the prevention of isolation, anxiety, substance use, and other at-risk behaviours that may develop when trauma is not properly supported and addressed.

In addition to service outcomes, I also want to make the business case that when the federal government invests in grants to non-profit organizations, the overall financial investment can have two or three or more times the value because of our ability to harness other professionals within an integrated model and our ability to fundraise and engage donors and volunteers—all of this compounding the government's investment in our community's children and youth.

Another preventive initiative that we're leading is the Youth Wellness Centre. Again, this is a community collaboration that focuses on the needs of young people with mild to moderate mental illness and substance use. Our community came together identifying the growing number of children and youth with anxiety, social anxiety, and substance use, including self-medicating and self-harm, and the list goes on. We envisioned a barrier-free, youth-friendly location where parents and youth could access responsive services and, based strictly on community donations and in-kind space provided by the City of Maple Ridge, we opened the Youth Wellness Centre this past April. We have provided psychiatric assessment, mental health, and primary care services for more than 120 youth between the ages of eight and 24 years.

I want to stress the urgent need for funding for this project, which represents innovative clinical and medical practices. We have moved away from the notion of “do more with less” to an approach of “do differently.” Innovations such as the use of telehealth capability, digital communication, and clinical assessment tools and corporate sponsorships are the way of the future.

Finally, I'd like to speak to the vulnerability of seniors in our community. According to Fraser Health reports, incidents of dementia, depression, and anxiety among our older adults in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows are higher than the region's average. We also have more seniors living alone, 36% compared to Fraser Health's overall of 26%. According to our community partners, a temporary shelter run by RainCity Housing reports 10% of its clients are seniors, and the food bank reports that seniors make up 22% of its regular users.

The impact of poverty on seniors is overwhelming. We hear from seniors who share the daily meals on wheels delivery because they can only afford a meal for one, or who have to make the choice between food and medication in their monthly expenses due to the high housing costs.

Living in poverty impacts the rate at which an individual's circumstance can quickly decline. For example, a senior accessing our community law advocacy program rapidly went from having a stable home environment where he was living meagrely on Canada pension and a small private pension, as he had worked his entire adult life, to living in a shelter. In this situation, he faced challenges with an unethical landlord and an issue with the delivery of his pension cheques. Without a cushion of savings, he completely lost the security of his home in a matter of days.

We find there is a gap that exists between the services that are available to seniors and seniors actually being aware of and accessing the benefits that are intended for them. I want to stress the importance of community-based programs that provide accessible, face-to-face programs, such as the poverty law advocacy program and seniors outreach programs that reduce barriers to access. Online applications cannot be the only option.

As an example, if you're a senior and you want to access the online Canada Pension Plan disability application, you would need to fully understand and complete not one, not two, but six separate online booklets. If you're referred by the ministry, you complete an additional one. That's seven booklets in total. A task such as this is simply overwhelming for vulnerable seniors.

In closing, I'd like to summarize the valuable role that non-profits serve in poverty reduction strategies, particularly when focusing on prevention and resiliency. We support important preventive and responsive services such as Alisa's Wish and a youth wellness centre, which enhance a child's and youth's potential for stability, growth, employment, and ultimately contributing to society. Also, it must be made a priority to support vulnerable seniors by offering community-based programs and systems and processes that close the gap for seniors to access and benefit from the programs that are intended for them.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

Now, from the Township of Langley, we have the senior adviser to council, corporate administration. I understand you were asked to appear here only yesterday.

I thank you for being here and for putting this together for us today.

Mr. William R. Storie, welcome.

[William R. Storie, Senior Advisor to Council, Corporate Administration, Township of Langley]

Thank you very much.

First I'd like to thank the committee for allowing me the opportunity to come and present.

Poverty is an issue that affects all of us, particularly now with the rate of homelessness and the price of housing throughout the Lower Mainland. People of all ages are at risk, but our seniors and youth are particularly vulnerable.

Our residents need services, programs, transportation, housing options, and support to break the cycle of poverty, and we have a role to play. With the co-operation of the Township of Langley, that means working to provide a variety of affordable housing options that meet the needs of residents of all ages, incomes, and stages of life.

Living on a fixed income is a concern for many of our senior citizens, and two years ago, the Township of Langley was formally recognized as an age-friendly community by the Province of British Columbia. We have adopted an age-friendly strategy that features 52 initiatives that encompass everything from social inclusion to employment to health services to housing. Langley township's age-friendly strategy promotes aging in place and creation of adaptable homes. We encourage builders to think about offering these features when they are creating homes in our community.

Until about three years ago, the Township of Langley had no suites within it that were legal, and council adopted and allowed illegal suites. We estimate that currently we have approximately 6,000 suites being registered. Through that registration, they have to meet the building code safety requirements and everything else. It's just one more form of allowing people to find suitable residency at a fair market price.

Secondary suites also provide a great format for affordable housing. The township has put in a licensing fee and strict bylaws to ensure suites are legal and safe.

Manufactured home parks are another option for those needing affordable housing. For those of you who are not familiar with the township, we have six communities within our jurisdiction, six mini-cities, and we have six manufactured, large, modular mobile parks.

A couple of years ago, in an effort to protect them, council created a policy that is more restrictive than provincial regulations for manufactured parks, so they will work with the.... If somebody wanted to sell that property, I've created the packages and the policies that say what the person has to do for the residents of the park, to subsidize them and pay for certain things if they are going to sell it, if they are going to rezone the park.

As well, the creation of additional manufactured home parks would be considered by council if someone were to come forward with such a proposal.

Rental housing is becoming more in demand, and more units are being built. In the package I've put up, this is phase one. This is already completed, and it's in Willoughby. It's all rental units. Phase two will be the same, and it will all be rental units too.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

To clarify for committee members, the packages weren't translated, so they will be distributed once they've been translated or interpreted. Thank you.

[William R. Storie]

Several purpose-built housing complexes have recently been created in our municipality, and last month new rental housing for seniors in Langley township was announced by the Province of British Columbia in partnership with a local church. If it goes forward, it will provide approximately 120 livable units for seniors and those who are struggling, and that was part of why that was being done.

This is one of the most important keys to addressing poverty and providing affordable housing partnerships. Earlier this month, we were thrilled to announce that the Langley Youth Resource Centre was being built on land provided by the township in partnership with the province and dozens of community organizations.

Approximately three years ago there was a presentation to council concerning youth who are going to school who are homeless. They asked for something to be done. Councillor Fox in particular championed this and over three years went forward with it, found private investors, entrepreneurs who didn't want to be recognized but were paying for it, and this is what the facility coming this summer will look like. It's modular. It will house five youth, and all the support services, the medical services, will be there for them as they transition through.

I thank you very much for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you, sir.

We'll get started with questions.

First up is MP Vecchio.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Good morning. Thanks for welcoming us today.

I have three key questions I want to ask and I have only six minutes.

John, I'm going to start with you. One of the things you stated was about needing an incentive to keep kids in school. We recognize that with changing times, sometimes trauma in the home, sometimes addictions.... What would those incentives look like?

[John Harvey]

Thank you for your question.

To my mind, it would less about incentives per se. It would be more about creating the systems and making the school system user friendly for the at-risk youth.

The common experience for these youths is that they have been disenfranchised by the system. They don't quite fit; it's the square hole and the round peg. Alternatively, it's about family issues. There needs to be a sensitivity to that, and there needs to be some flexibility in the school system—

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

It's looking at alternative methods of learning, then, whether it's going to be alternative education systems, online training, or one-on-one things?

[John Harvey]

Exactly.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Okay. Perfect.

[John Harvey]

Also, though, I will point out that it's about the sensitivity of the administration and the sensitivity of the teachers in being able to work with the challenges that come with being at risk.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Absolutely. Thank you very much. I've seen systems like those that do work, systems that look at what the child needs first, and sometimes that's exactly.... We're sometimes doing it backwards.

Vicki, I want to switch over to you, because what we see is that poverty has changed. We're looking at mental health issues. If we're comparing this to where we were a few years ago, we see an increase in mental health issues and, of course, we've seen a real opioid issue that's come in from the west coast to the east.

Can you talk a bit about that? What are the demographics that we're looking at? Do you see a younger demographic now? What are the needs of that demographic? If you don't mind, can you speak to that?

[Vicki Kipps]

Yes, absolutely. Thanks for the question.

Unfortunately, we are seeing an impact with our younger folks. I'll go back to something that Mayor Read was talking about in terms of the homeless camp that we had in Maple Ridge. Although the shelter is not adequate by any stretch, it did provide an alternative.

What we saw in the shelter was a large portion of the population under the age of 30 who talked about aging out of care without the adequate supports. Really, when we look at services such as Alisa's Wish or the Youth Wellness Centre, we are very much focusing on supporting those people at a younger age before they become completely entrenched.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Absolutely, and looking at the demographics of the people you're serving, could you break that down into persons who have fallen on...? I'm looking at, say, children who just make a wrong choice or children who have come from a trauma situation in their own home, as well as addictions. Would you be able to sit there and say “This is what we see most of” or “We see a majority coming from this flow”?

[Vicki Kipps]

That's a great question.

When we look at the stats breakdown of the 120 youth who have walked through the doors of the Youth Wellness Centre, we see that a high 90% are speaking of anxiety and social anxiety, but I don't have the stats at my fingertips in terms of the underlying causes of the anxiety and the social anxiety.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I've done a lot of stuff with youth wellness, and that's what I really do see across this country, whether it's here in Maple Ridge or where I'm from in the southwestern Ontario area.

William, I want to pass this over to you, if you don't mind, because you talked about these 100 units and the livable units for seniors. I saw the photo. In my own town, there is something called the Aylmer Trillium project. It's a seniors' place. It was built by the community, working together, because it was needed.

You never mentioned how you funded this. Can you talk to me? How much money did you get from federal, provincial, and community...? Can you share that with me at this time?

[William R. Storie]

I'm sorry. Is this the one for the seniors that is presently being proposed? It is done by the provincial government and the church, and it is being funded between the two of them.