Evidence of meeting #17 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was homelessness.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
It's not my favourite film at all.
Would you say this will have a more significant impact where there was previously larger amounts of homelessness, such as the GTA and Vancouver? Do you think it will have a greater impact there, and perhaps in Calgary as well and those larger metro centres?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
It's tough to say, but I think anywhere you see people with lower incomes losing their employment and high housing costs, you'll see the pressure and potentially the increase in homelessness. It can happen in large cities and in small cities. The dynamic is essentially the same. If there's a loss of employment and not a lot of housing available, you may see people entering the homeless system.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Of course, we've seen the lack of success recently with the first-time homebuyers program. Do you think that making home ownership more accessible to Canadians would do anything to ease the number of homeless and improve the situation?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
The short answer is not really.
Longer term, organizations like Habitat for Humanity or some forms of attainable home ownership can actually move people out of social housing and out of rental housing. They can be an important part of the housing continuum, but people experiencing homelessness have to pay rent less than $750 a month in order to be able to get by.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Thank you.
Recently, within the pandemic, we've seen, of course, as was mentioned previously, a number of hotels used to house the homeless.
Is this something that we see as a longer-term response, or do you see this alleviating once the pandemic is over?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
It certainly can be, if those hotels can be renovated to be effectively single-room occupancy.
Liberal
Liberal
Liberal
Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON
Thank you very much.
I have a couple of questions for Mr. Richter.
There has been discussion about not imposing standards on provinces when federal and provincial agreements are signed. You're from Alberta. The Alberta government has refused to spend federal dollars because they have to match them, and as a result, no dollars are being spent.
Is there a risk to not demanding federal standards to add new money to housing systems to create new housing? If we don't put that in place, is there a risk that we simply displace provincial housing and we sustain the status quo?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
Yes, I think there's a risk that federal dollars would end up displacing provincial dollars, and then that benefit is negligible.
Liberal
Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON
In fact, we've seen that in Saskatchewan and Alberta since the accords were signed.
In terms of the call for supportive housing to be built, long-term care is a form of supportive housing. When you talk about supportive housing, do you include the long-term care sector in that calculation?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
We haven't included the long-term care sector in the calculation of our housing, but what is effectively done in long-term care is supportive housing. It's a form of supportive housing for people who are aging, but a lot of what we propose as supportive housing is in fact the same as long-term care.
Liberal
Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON
When other parties in Parliament say that when we invest in the long-term care and create long-term care supports for provinces, there needs to be federal standards and federal criteria attached to those dollars, why would we attach criteria in that sector of the housing market but then walk away from establishing criteria in the rest of the country?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
That's a great question. We should be looking at federal standards and expectations. The federal government shouldn't be shy about setting clear expectations, about setting standards and about having expectations for the dollars it has invested. That's basic duty to taxpayers.
Liberal
Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON
To be clear, you would support a government initiative that was capital intensive and was prioritizing non-profit housing providers to either acquire or renovate some of the housing that's being used to house homeless individuals during this crisis.
Would you support a new chapter being added to the national housing strategy, particularly to sustain housing for COVID-related housing measures?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
I think so. The challenge is that there's only so much housing around to renovate. We see that challenge in Calgary specifically.
Yes, it's an opportunity to move very quickly, but there are also other options. You can build, but supporting the income of Canadians at risk of homelessness is actually much faster than building anything. You're not going to build your way out of homelessness. You have to use income and construction, and supports for sure.
Liberal
Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON
Do you also support the Canada Health Act being used to provide those supports and mandate them into community-based housing projects?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
Sure.
Liberal
Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON
To Mr. Cimon, I have a quick question on Quebec.
We're very close to signing an accord, but as Mr. Richter has identified, if we don't tie that to new housing and new housing supports, we may just allow the Quebec government to displace existing systems.
Would it help Quebeckers looking for housing if we didn't insist on new housing and new supports being mandatory as part of any agreement?
Director General, Association des groupes de ressources techniques du Québec
I think the government is trying to build new housing and making sure to deliver. Whether you put it in or not, the question is this: What's the accountability on the subsidy?
At the end of the convention, I think the people in Quebec and the government do want new housing. They want new development and they want to support the ones that are existing. I don't see any problem with or without, but the question is to do it quickly.
Liberal
Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON
Would you share Mr. Richter's concern that as the federal government puts money in the front door, if a provincial government were allowed to take money out the back door, the status quo would prevail even though a new accord would have been signed?
Director General, Association des groupes de ressources techniques du Québec
You have to go with the good faith. When somebody is clear that they won't use it, that's one thing, but when a government has a system in place and wants to use it in a different way, you have to get the flexibility to make sure that the money goes down.
It's a question of everything or nothing. You have to make sure that there is something in between.
