Human Resources Committee on Dec. 8th, 2020

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Two and a half minutes goes fast.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Yes, indeed, it does.

Mr. Kent, you have five minutes, please.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for this evening's appearance.

Minister Hussen, in mid-October, referring to the major city stream of the rapid housing initiative, said that, because cities had already identified properties to buy or plans for modular housing, he expected to see “a lot of housing being built before the winter”.

From the minister's remarks, your remarks, Ms. Bowers, and your correction of Mr. Vaughan's comment, is it true that no work is being done now because you're still in the assessment phase?

[Romy Bowers]

With respect to the first stream of rapid housing, which is the major city stream, we have signed our agreements with most of the municipalities and the funding is out the door. As you can imagine, we have a guideline that the construction must be finished within 12 months, but there is a range of different construction schedules in terms of when these buildings would be in place.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

When is the first construction to begin?

[Romy Bowers]

I would have to get back to you with that particular piece of information.

With respect to the project stream, when we're prioritizing the different applications that we get, we are prioritizing those projects that deliver housing more rapidly to the extent that proponents can commit to getting houses on the ground more quickly. We would prioritize those.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Do you expect, since it's early December now, almost mid-December, that Minister Hussen's expectation of getting all of the money out the door before March, two and a half months from now, will be met?

[Romy Bowers]

We have just received the investment plans from the various municipalities that contain this level of detail. We're in the process of assessing that, so we'll be able to provide a little bit more detail once we've done that assessment.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Please send that to the committee. Thank you.

Minister Hussen mentioned in his opening remarks the additional $299 million for Reaching Home that will, among other things, he said, help prevent at-risk Canadians from becoming homeless in the first place by supporting targeted interventions that enable people to stay housed. Can you give us an example of a targeted intervention?

[Janet Goulding]

The kinds of targeted interventions imagined there are rental arrears payments or utility arrears payments and short-term rent supplements to help people maintain housing while they're stabilizing their financial situation.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

What's your expectation of the number of people who might be helped by this additional $299 million or part of the additional funding?

[Janet Goulding]

As my colleague has mentioned, it's early days for this initiative. The funding was just announced in the fall economic statement, so we will be working through the development of a proposal on how we might implement the funding through our Reaching Home network and work with them.

One of the main considerations will be, though, the extent to which they require additional funding in the upcoming year to maintain COVID-related measures in terms of social distancing, but we are very hopeful—I think we all are—for a vaccine and hoping that those measures won't be required much longer.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you.

The national housing strategy talks about the 10-year, $55 billion-plus plan to create 125,000 new housing units. The indigenous housing caucus talks about a 10-year plan at a cost of about $25 billion for 73,000 needed units.

Can the department provide figures showing what portion of the national housing strategy would address indigenous urban, rural and northern housing for those two sets of figures, the 125,000 new units or the indigenous housing caucus's estimate of 73,000 units?

[Romy Bowers]

We can certainly provide a breakdown for the national housing strategy. We have to go into a little bit of detail about the different programs, because some of the programs are contribution-based programs and others are based on loans. Depending on the composition of the funding, this determines the number of units delivered, but we could certainly provide clarity as to the assumptions that we use in serving our indigenous communities.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

If you could provide that to the committee, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Kent.

The last questioner for the evening is Mr. Vaughan, please, for five minutes.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Thank you.

This question is on the rapid housing initiative. The decision whether to build or acquire is a local decision made by local cities. We have in fact empowered them to make the right decision, based on the right set of circumstances, based on the population they have to serve.

Is that not how the program was designed?

[Romy Bowers]

Yes, that's correct.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

We're not, then, pushing modular housing onto communities. We've simply made an option available to those who might have access to supply.

[Romy Bowers]

That's correct. We recognize that housing is a local issue and we have built maximum flexibility into this program.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

The expectation is that most of the housing will actually be acquired—distressed assets, things such as old motels or abandoned housing that gets refurbished immediately—to house people quickly, and not necessarily be through construction.

[Romy Bowers]

That's correct. Refurbishment is one major category for the RHI.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Let me turn to child care. Virtually every significant study on early learning and child care suggests that the sooner you get children into structured learning environments, the better they do in school and the better they develop intellectually over the extent of their life.

[Catherine Adam]

Yes, that is true. Numerous studies have pointed to the importance and the long-term value of early learning and child care that is of high quality.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

That's why, in places such as Toronto, where there is a 67,000-family wait-list to get into subsidized or structured child care, the demand is coming not from provinces or cities but in fact from parents to support a national system with national standards funded across the country.

Is that not why we're supporting the choice that parents are asking us to make?