Human Resources Committee on Nov. 4th, 2020

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I think you indicated a number of criteria—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Sorry, I specifically—

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

—so I wasn't sure which ones you are referring to at the moment.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Perhaps I can get Mr. Siddall to answer that question in writing so that I can get clarity on this issue.

[Evan Siddall]

We can do that.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

On the issue around the throne speech.... Sorry, I'm just going to go to the national housing strategy announced in 2017. It did not include an urban, rural and northern indigenous strategy. The 2019 mandate letter that the minister received specifically had a directive to address the urban indigenous housing strategy, yet today there is no strategy. Why was it left out of the throne speech, and when will the minister fulfill that mandate?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

It is part of my mandate commitment to fashion a national housing strategy that is in line with the needs and the aspirations of indigenous people in Canada, and it has to be done by them and with them. Of course, it would also mean that we would have to obviously make sure, as I said, that it is done in partnership.

I know the committee is studying this issue, and I look forward to their findings as part of a way to—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Minister, you don't need to wait for the committee to finish this work.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I didn't say I was waiting for the committee to do the work. I didn't say that.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

This has been in the mandate for some time, and I hope that you will actually get on with it. The community has been waiting and waiting. The urban indigenous community is homeless. Many of them are desperate for action by the government now.

The housing co-ops from the section 95 program whose operating agreements expired prior to April 2016 have been excluded from phase two of the federal community housing initiative. As a result, 277 co-ops—7,500 households in Alberta, B.C., Ontario, P.E.I. and Quebec—will not get the subsidies required to support low-income members of their co-ops.

Equally disturbing is the fact that co-ops with operating agreements under the urban native housing program are also excluded. By choosing not to provide rental assistance to these co-ops, the federal government is actively displacing low-income families during a pandemic.

Will the minister ensure that the low-income members of these co-ops are supported by making the rental assistance available to them?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

What I do know is we are investing $500 million over 10 years in the federal community housing initiative. That's being implemented in two phases. The initiative will protect tenants and stabilize the operations of some 55,000 units in federal community housing projects—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Sorry, Minister, I was very specific in my question.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I was trying to answer the question.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I'm talking about section 95 co-ops. Will those ones that have been excluded from rental assistance get the assistance they need?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I'm trying to answer your question.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the launch date for phase two of the federal community housing initiative was delayed from April to September 1, so we made sure—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Minister, they were excluded—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Ms. Kwan, you are past time.

Minister, please finish your answer, and then we're going to move on.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Okay. I was very quickly saying that we've made sure that current levels of financial assistance are maintained. Of course, COVID created a bit of a delay, but the work continues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Kwan.

Thank you, Minister.

Next we have Mr. Vis, please, for five minutes.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Since I've been appointed as the shadow minister for housing, there's been a near-universal message from housing stakeholders that the housing co-investment fund application process is very challenging to fill out. A number of indigenous housing providers have said this too.

Second, there aren't a lot of assurances about the length of time that program proponents need to wait to receive an answer.

What can your department do better, Minister, or through CMHC, to improve the application process and improve the unnecessary wait times?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Before I defer to Mr. Siddall for this answer, I will start off by saying that a lot of work has gone into streamlining the process. That work continues. It is fair to say that a lot of progress has been made to streamline the process, but there are also a lot of things that other actors beyond the federal government can do. For example, what municipal governments do before the applications reach CMHC is also part of the mix. You can see that municipality A will fast-track and offer incentives and move things along; municipality B will not do that.

In terms of what can be done beyond here, I'll turn to Mr. Siddall.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Give a brief answer, please.

[Evan Siddall]

I will try to be brief.

We have reduced our turnaround times by 50%. We stood this program up extremely quickly. We got it launched on time. We have client solution specialists who are supporting folks as well.

I'm happy to respond more. We sped up what is a very complicated program that requires consultation with provinces and territories, underwriting of loans, confirmation of affordability criteria, greenhouse gas emissions and accessibility criteria. We have reduced the turnaround times by 50%.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you; that's sufficient. I will say that the constituents or stakeholders I spoke to within the last couple of weeks felt that the processing times were still too long. I do appreciate that answer. If you'd like to table anything further to show that progress, it would be very welcomed by all committee members.

My second question is for the minister. You recently claimed that your government has helped house one million families. Would you be able to table a complete breakdown outlining the one million families that have been helped?

I ask this question because MP Vaughan was in the newspaper, in the Toronto Star, in January, where he said that this claim was stretched and that they massaged the numbers a bit. The committee, I believe, would welcome a complete breakdown of the million families that have been helped. Would you be able to provide that for us, Minister?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I would be happy to do that.