Human Resources Committee on April 13th, 2016

[Kathryn McDade]

Thank you very much. The homelessness partnering strategy is currently pre-budget funded at about $105 million per year. That money is distributed to communities across Canada. The agreements that the ESDC has are with community entities, as we call them, in each community. That typically means the municipal government.

Budget 2016 announced additional funding of $112 million over two years, which is a significant increment. It's in the neighbourhood of a 50% increase in the annual funding. The government hasn't yet announced the specific details of how that funding will flow to communities, but plans to do that shortly.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Thank you. I will go back to CMHC. In the category of federally subsidized co-ops, that's under your purview, correct? Can you explain to us what is being done and the funds that are being committed, and how that process will work?

[Evan Siddall]

Included in the budget was $30 million for federally administered co-ops to continue to provide income support for those residents who were receiving rent subsidies.

We believe, based on our research, that's more than sufficient for the next two years. That bridges us to a national housing strategy that will address the longer term needs of those constituents and those Canadians.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Currently there are some that have already expired, and there are some that are going to expire in the next few months and certainly in the next few years.

[Evan Siddall]

Yes.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

What will happen with the ones that are currently expired?

[Evan Siddall]

For the already expired, there's about 100,000 units in Canada that have already expired and come off operating agreements. Those are being supported effectively, Mr. Chair, through the investment in affordable housing.

We provide $280 million a year, which has now been doubled. That money is available to provinces and territories to continue to support a range of different housing programs, including rent subsidization.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Who manages this? I'm curious to know what role the CMHC plays in that. Are you funding it, or is money being pushed to the provinces?

[Evan Siddall]

We are funding it—

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Okay.

[Evan Siddall]

—within four parameters. One of those four parameters is that provinces have to report to us on the use of that money. One of the correct uses of that money is rent subsidization. It's about 23% over the last number of years of the investment in affordable housing program that has gone to rent subsidy payments. It has been used by provinces and territories for that purpose in significant amounts.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

If I understand correctly, then, for the next two years, the $30 million is transitional until we get to the national housing.

[Evan Siddall]

Yes, so let me elaborate, if I may.

The $30 million, again, has been set aside for federally administered programs that are coming off operating agreements. In addition to that, we're communicating to our provincial and territorial partners our expectation that they will make use of the substantial investment in affordable housing money to do the same thing.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Okay, thank you very much. I think I've pretty much run out of time.

[Evan Siddall]

Chair, may I elaborate on a prior question to Monsieur Robillard?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Very quickly, yes, absolutely.

[Evan Siddall]

I responded with respect to affordable housing units.

I am sorry. You asked me a question about buying a house. The CMHC provides first time homebuyers—

mortgage loan insurance, and we provide that across the country. About two-thirds of our business, Chair, is to first-time home buyers and young families.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Excellent.

Now we go over to Member of Parliament Zimmer.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank you, too, for your work as our bureaucracy, which has to balance a lot of dollar figures, and I'm going to ask you some questions about those dollar figures.

Specifically to Mr. Thompson, I see that there's been an expenditure increase in the skills and employment. I'll refer to the Library of Parliament document, page 4, table 3, to warn you what I'm looking at.

Do you have it there in front of you?

[Paul Thompson]

Yes, my colleague does.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

I have three questions for you.

First, I have a dollar question. I see the increase on expenditures with skills and employment. I'm a carpenter and former teacher of the trades, etc., and one thing that I'm concerned about is that we increase the number. One concern of mine is that we can throw money at issues, but what is the net benefit of the money being spent?

I see the increase in expenditures for skills and employment, “skills, adaptive and inclusive labour force”. I see an increase, quite dramatically, to the tune of $1.6 billion in 2016; $1.755 billion, to a total of $2.192 billion over the next three to four years, depending on how you look at it. What is that money being spent on?

[Paul Thompson]

You're speaking to a document that aggregates the spending of quite a large number of programs together. I think it's important to unpack that to look at the evolution of different—

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Let's say, specifically, to see the increase in skilled trades. I'll single that out as something to get an answer for.

[Paul Thompson]

There are a number of programs within the skilled trades area that the department is very active on. There's the apprenticeship loan program, which was rolled out recently. It is a new program to provide a loan for those individuals who are in an apprenticeship program. That's one of the main features. We have an ongoing support as well for the Red Seal program, which we administer in conjunction with provinces.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Do you have the numbers attached to each one of those expenditure increases? That's what I'm trying to dig down to.