Human Resources Committee on Nov. 4th, 2020

[Evan Siddall]

No. Again, as I said, that's about reinforcing our strategy and the policies and the client-driven activities that we are pursuing because of that.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Do you have an update on first-time homebuyers since COVID hit?

[Evan Siddall]

I'm sorry. What's the question, sir?

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Do you have an update on the numbers in terms of the uptake?

[Evan Siddall]

Yes.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, I can tell you that 9,500 applications have been approved, representing about $173 million, as of September 2020.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Are you planning to expand this program?

[Evan Siddall]

That's a decision for the government, sir.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Minister Hussen?

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

Yes, I can take that. Thank you for the question.

As was promised during the last election, we promised Canadians living in the greater Toronto area, the greater Vancouver area and the Victoria region that, due to their local circumstances, we will increase the threshold amount of the first-time homebuyer incentive to take into account their local circumstances. It is a promise that we intend to keep and that we haven't executed yet, but we intend to keep that promise.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, can I get the time remaining?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

You have three and a half minutes left.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, in the main estimates, you're requesting $24.4 million for “Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy”. Can you tell me what this money is earmarked for, exactly?

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

I'll let the officials go into details, but essentially this is meant to support social purpose organizations that are doing really important work to solve complex social problems such as housing, poverty reduction and so on.

I can give you many examples of the great work that is happening through social purpose organizations right across the country. I've met many of them and have seen for myself the work they do. This is a way to support them and to support the system of the social finance world and to encourage more organizations to consider a social finance model of funding, because it's sustainable and has a much bigger impact than—

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Right, so what metrics are you using? Who makes the final decision? Is there a series of criteria? I went to the website and it basically said that it was a kind of free-for-all and is whatever the government determines is important.

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

I'll let my officials take that.

[Janet Goulding, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Income Security and Social Development Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development]

Thank you, Minister. I'll be happy to take that question.

I believe the question is related to the investment readiness program. It's a two-year pilot program that the department is running.

The way the program works is that we are partnering with a number of intermediaries in the community: for example, Community Foundations Canada, the Canadian Women's Foundation, the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association and the National Association of Friendship Centres. Those organizations are running open calls for proposals to allow social partnership organizations to access funding that allows them to do exactly what the minister alluded to, and that is to increase their capacity both to participate in the social finance market and to grow their capacity to grow their impact.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you very much for that.

I'm sorry. I want to split my time with Mr. Vis, if I could. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Mr. Vis, go ahead, please.

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

I'm going to go with a series of questions with my short amount of time here, and then I'll seek answers.

How many project applications are in the queue of the national housing co-investment fund, and when will they be complete? Did the national co-investment fund receive additional funds since the mains were tabled in February? If so, how much? What measures are being taken to ensure that funding is reaching the communities where it is needed the most? What are the guiding principles for the approval process?

Are there certain regional or demographic targets as it pertains to the approval of projects? According to my knowledge, some provinces and territories—Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the Yukon—had not seen any approved projects under the NHCF as of April 2020. Have any projects been approved in these provinces and territories since that time? If so, where? How many projects have been approved in each jurisdiction? Are any regions of the country being prioritized with regard to the approval of projects under this funding stream?

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time today.

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

Mr. Chair, I will answer the last question first and then defer to Mr. Siddall for the number of projects in the pipeline.

In terms of the national housing co-investment fund, it's an application-based process. There is absolutely no preference for one region over another. Each project is looked at based on its merits. The one area in the country where we have put set-asides in the co-investment fund to take into account the particular challenges of building affordable housing is the territories, so there is an amount of money in the co-investment fund set aside for the territories, but beyond that it's an application-based process and each project is assessed on its own merits.

In terms of the number of projects in the pipeline for the co-investment fund, I will turn it over to Mr. Siddall.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I'm going to jump in right there because we're well past time. Mr. Vis went right to the line and then ceded the floor. I think what he's expecting and what would be reasonable.... Mr. Siddall, you'll have the transcript of the questions. If you could provide the committee with the answers in written form, then we can be a little fairer with the distribution of time.

[Evan Siddall]

I'm very happy to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Mr. Turnbull, please, you have six minutes.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister and your whole team. It's great to see you. Thanks for being here. I really appreciate all the work you've been doing.

Minister, I want to ask you about the Reaching Home funding. I'm concerned about my constituents and constituents across Durham region. As winter approaches, people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness are exposed and at risk of the outdoors, but also, more so, of COVID-19. We increased the funds for Reaching Home—I think it was a 313% increase, a significant increase—and I've heard from constituents and stakeholders in the region and my riding that this money reached them quite rapidly during COVID-19, which was really helpful.

I wonder if you could give us some additional details on this funding and how we're moving to end chronic homelessness in Canada.

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

Thank you very much.

Mr. Chair, I want to begin by highlighting what the honourable member said. On the additional infusion of $157.5 million, the feedback we got from the community entities, the organizations and the municipalities, was that the money was crucial and instrumental in making sure that folks were protected from the COVID-19 pandemic; that the organizations had money to procure extra space for social distancing for individuals experiencing homelessness; and that they had the additional flexibility and money to buy PPE and cleaning supplies and to procure all kinds of different necessities. That made a huge difference, and that is why we moved ahead with an additional $236.7 million.

These are additional dollars to the base amount, in addition to increasing the number of communities receiving Reaching Home dollars, including indigenous providers. It's a program that's working very well, and that is why we renewed the funding, to make sure that those communities can get over the winter period.

Second, and very closely related to that, is the rapid housing initiative. You have heard from municipal leaders right across the country how this will make a big difference in their own attempts to provide permanent housing solutions to their residents who are experiencing homelessness, whether it is on the west coast, the east coast, central Canada and everywhere. If you talk to the 15 mayors of the first stream, they will tell you that this money will make a big difference.

In the second stream, we're waiting to see the number of projects that will come forward to access the second stream of $500 million to either build rapid housing from scratch or obtain existing properties and convert them quickly into housing. Again, this is part of the spectrum: Reaching Home managed to house people temporarily, and the rapid housing initiative hopefully will move them to permanent housing. This is in addition to the regular national housing strategy program, and they are working together.

I'll give you an example. In Scarborough last week, I was announcing 110 new units as part of a modular housing project, which did not come from the rapid housing initiative. They used money in the regular national housing strategy. So these programs are working and complementing each other. With the addition of the rapid housing initiative, we are now at $56 billion as part of the national housing strategy.

A lot of work has been done. Of course, there is more work to be done as well.