Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much, committee members.
The Réseau québécois des organismes sans but lucratif d'habitation brings together, supports and represents community organizations that provide housing for low‑income or modest‑income households or for people with special housing needs. By working to ensure the recognition, development and sustainability of these organizations, our network helps to improve housing conditions for thousands of Quebeckers.
In Quebec, over 55,000 housing units managed by non‑profit organizations are administered by 1,250 organizations grouped into eight regional federations, all affiliated with the Réseau. Over 10,000 people volunteer in our network, which also draws on the commitment of 8,000 paid employees. Overall, the property value of non‑profit housing organizations is around $6 billion.
In the context and preparation of this presentation, we took into account the committee's areas of interest. These areas are human resources, skills development, social development and the status of persons with disabilities. In addition, our presentation is part of a study on federal investments in housing. Lastly, we took into consideration the fact that the Réseau is being called on for its expertise on the strengths and challenges of developing, operating and maintaining rental housing provided by non‑profit organizations in Quebec. The Réseau has brought these rental units together through its close ties to these organizations and after years of advocacy and collaboration with both administrative and governmental state entities.
With this in mind, our approach is as follows. We can see that, right off the bat, the study points to the lack of federal investment in rental housing development in recent years and decades. Thank you for raising this issue. First, we need to talk about the federal government's commitment in the 20th century and withdrawal in the early 21st century; the subsequent and modest commitment of provincial governments; Quebec's noticeable but unfortunately insufficient investment in developing social and community housing compared to the other provinces; and the unforeseen maze, in this first quarter century, affecting every facet of the Canadian housing system. For our sector, this is a matter of course.
Canada's—and Quebec's as well, to a certain extent—long‑standing government culture around housing investment has proved incapable of preventing the current crisis. As is the case today, it has often failed to meet current needs. The lack of quantitative investment has often been criticized, and rightly so. However, we now understand that the lack of qualitative investment has also been an underestimated contributing factor to the current crisis.
We can see how the imbalance between supply and demand for rental housing has played a role in triggering the current crisis. That much is clear. However, we strongly believe that, when this factor or focus is singled out, it paints an inaccurate picture of a highly complex crisis. This incomplete picture affects both the methods and the time frame for emerging from the crisis. The truncated view of the issue means that the resulting solutions lack teeth, and the process drags on.
We gather from the issues raised by the study that it focuses specifically on the supply of rental housing, but also on the type of tenure. As a result, our opinion contains some comments on the quantitative supply of housing. However, it focuses more on the investment objectives and methods.
As we heard earlier, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation announced in 2023 that, to achieve a balanced rental market in Canada, over 3.5 million housing units must be built by 2030. For Quebec, this would mean an order for 680,000 units within this time frame. Moreover, some financial institutions have added to this figure with their studies.
Regardless of the number of housing units required—