Human Resources Committee on Feb. 4th, 2021

[Caroline Sanfaçon]

That's an excellent question. You are absolutely right. Groups have different capacity, and that is why our experts were on the ground to help them submit their application forms.

The Community Housing Transformation Centre was also available and was a huge help to groups in submitting their application forms to CMHC.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

My other question is also about the second stream.

As my colleague Mr. Housefather mentioned earlier, the second stream included $500 million, and Quebec received $116 million, if my math is correct. However, this was funded by the second stream of the rapid housing initiative, which [Technical difficulty—Editor] was already a few years old and was awaiting funding. As we know, it took three years for the money from the national strategy to get to Quebec, which caused delays for us.

Given that projects on hold received funding from this envelope, isn't there a risk that other organizations might not be able to access the program?

[Caroline Sanfaçon]

The question about the decision to negotiate a supplementary agreement with Quebec should actually go the government.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

So I should have asked it in the first part.

A Conservative MP asked whether organizations whose projects were not completed within the 12-month period would be penalized.

Does the project need to be completed by the end of this period, or does it only need to be started, or on the way to completion? Is there any flexibility in that regard?

[Caroline Sanfaçon]

We ask organizations to complete their projects within 12 months. However, we must recognize that sometimes there are delays that are not caused by those groups, but by factors beyond their control. If that is the case, we work with them to get their projects back on track and give them the flexibility that they need.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Sanfaçon and Ms. Chabot.

Next we have Ms. Gazan, please, for six minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

My first question is for Ms. Bowers.

We know that the COVID-19 funding under Reaching Home and other funding streams is set to close on March 31. Many of our front-line organizations around the country depend on those, especially the front-line organizations that are doing things like providing PPE and other essential supplies.

Are there any plans to notify the organizations about whether these funds will be renewed beyond March 31? As we know, the pandemic is not ending, and many organizations are expressing deep concern.

[Romy Bowers]

Unfortunately, the Reaching Home program is the responsibility of ESDC. Although we at CMHC are we're familiar with the program, I'm not in a position to answer this question. I apologize for that, but we can certainly look into getting an answer for you from the appropriate department.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you. I would appreciate that.

One of the issues that we experienced in Winnipeg—and I know other organizations experienced it across the country—is with the rezoning process to convert buildings to residential facilities. In some places, including Winnipeg, this can be long and cumbersome.

Have there been any arrangements made with applicants who faced issues with restrictive zoning regulations to ensure that they were not excluded should they not be able to complete their project within a 12-month completion deadline?

[Romy Bowers]

As I've noted in prior appearances, we have housing specialists located throughout the country. We worked with the proponents on a case-by-case basis and we realize that, depending on the municipality, there are zoning challenges.

Where we can, we did work with proponents and the municipality to have workarounds for this. Again, it really depends on the municipality and the particular situation.

I would go back to saying that housing solutions require very strong partnerships and that CMHC is committed to working with cities and provinces to make sure that the funding gets out the door.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I know that in my riding really excellent projects were disqualified because of zoning issues and because of the speed of the rapid housing initiative. Four weeks was not a reasonable time frame to really get things out the door, according to many city councillors whom I worked very closely with. I say that just as a point that I think you should be aware of.

Does CMHC have anything in place to ensure that the 3,000 new units that have been acquired will remain permanently as affordable housing? How are these regulations, if there are any, going to be put in place if they haven't already been?

[Romy Bowers]

As part of the RHI program we do have governance and reporting requirements. We do have an infrastructure set up within our organization to make sure that we monitor these projects on an ongoing basis.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

How are they monitored?

[Romy Bowers]

Through the reporting.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

But how are you going to ensure that they're not transitioned out of being affordable housing units?

[Romy Bowers]

There are attestation processes and we do have staff on the ground in the various regions of Canada to verify the information that's being provided by the proponent.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Okay, but that still doesn't answer my question. We now have money to purchase 3,000 units. How are you going to ensure that they remain affordable housing units permanently?

[Romy Bowers]

As I mentioned, we do have requirements as part of the funding conditions to ensure that the affordability requirements are met. We have an attestation process for people to report on this information on an annual basis.

To the extent there is no compliance, we will—

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

So in the reporting requirements, it must stay as an affordable housing unit permanently? Is that part of it? Is that what you're telling me? I just want to make sure that I'm understanding this.

[Romy Bowers]

Yes. The affordability is for a 20-year duration. It's not just affordability, as there are a number of other criteria and conditions that we will be following up on as well.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Great. Thanks very much.

Many communities are frustrated that they didn't get an allocation under the rapid housing initiative, and smaller communities might not even have had the resources to produce as strong of an application as bigger centres.

How will CMHC be responding to this reality for smaller communities going forward?

[Romy Bowers]

In terms of the design of the rapid housing initiative, it was purposely designed for the project stream to make sure that the application process would be as simple and streamlined as possible. We received a large number of applications from smaller non-profits, and also indigenous organizations, which would indicate that we have achieved some success in that streamlining process.

Having said that, there are always improvements that we can make. If there are specific comments that your constituents have made, we'd be very happy to receive them. One of the keys to our success is having people on the ground working with the proponents, helping them through the application process, and we feel that in general this has been very successful with the rapid housing initiative.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Gazan and Ms. Bowers.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much.

[Romy Bowers]

Thank you. Bye.