Evidence of meeting #21 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was supply.
A recording is available from Parliament.
General Manager, Bâtir son quartier
For housing projects, assistance for building and renovating housing units is very helpful. Even with subsidies, there is still not enough assistance for low-income individuals. What is needed is what we call individual assistance. So when affordable housing programs are established, a mixture is needed. There are households with modest incomes, but also those with lower incomes that need additional help.
Quebec has the rent subsidy program. Federal programs also provide individual assistance, but it is not enough to close the gap between the cost of rent and the individual's ability to pay.
Bloc
Louise Chabot Bloc Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
That should not come from the $4 billion housing accelerator fund that was announced. An additional fund is needed. Is that what you are saying?
General Manager, Bâtir son quartier
Wherever the money comes from, there is tremendous need. That said, I would rather do a bit less and meet the goals to help those in greatest need rather than say that we cannot do it, or instead do even more but still not help those Canadians in the greatest need.
Liberal
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll start my questioning with Ms. Atkey first and talk about not leaving people behind. I want to focus on the strong tenant protections that she spoke about. Then I'll go to Ms. Bond on using what we have in regard to what's already built, and I'll have some questions about short-term rentals there. Then, if I have time, I'll go to Ms. Cyr, just to talk about the operating funds versus subsidies to cities.
I'm going to you, Ms. Atkey, for my question on strong tenant protections. I know that right now the number is about 3:1 on displacements of old or aged affordable housing versus what's being built. I worry a lot about persons with disabilities, single parents and seniors who are in these housing units. I wonder if you could expand on what those strong tenant protections need to look like and if you have any additional information on what's happening to renters in this redevelopment market that we see in urban centres.
Chief Executive Officer, British Columbia Non-Profit Housing Association
Thank you for the question, Ms. Zarrillo.
First, on the 3:1 ratio you mentioned, through acquisitions, there are a significant number of investors purchasing older purpose-built rentals. We know that in British Columbia we lost about 34,000 units of rental housing renting below $750. For every new unit of affordable housing we're building, we're losing three units.
Nationally, that figure is 1:15. Abi spoke to the need for an acquisition strategy, and that's exactly what gap this would fill to stop the loss of existing rentals, because those are really the most affordable rentals that we have today.
Also, then, on displacement, increasingly municipalities are introducing strong tenant relocation and tenant protection measures. There are really no provincial protections in place, and certainly not any federally, but it's more of a provincial mandate. There are no provincial protections in place when a rental building gets redeveloped. Oftentimes, redevelopment is really critical because we get additional supply from that redevelopment, but we need to make sure tenants are protected through that.
If we're going to be incentivizing new rental development through the acquisition strategy, I would suggest that needs to come attached to really strong tenant protection provisions so that people, when displaced, are not seeing a rapid escalation in their rents and have first right of refusal to come back to the new redevelopment at existing rents.
I hope that answers your question.
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
It does. Thank you so much. It's so important to make sure that those who are being displaced can come back to a unit they can afford—for sure.
I'm going to go to you, Ms. Bond. There are limitations. You mentioned trade and supply chains and those sorts of things, and then you mentioned the opportunity to utilize what's already built, what we already have, and how can we accelerate what we already have to make it maybe expand the number of units or upgrade or the maintenance.... I wanted to ask you if you could expand on that a bit.
Also, I hear a lot about short-term rentals in some of these new builds. I know in that my city of Coquitlam, where I was before, I've heard about 10, 12 and even more units being bought by one person and being used for short-term rentals. Even on housing agreements, the language in the housing agreement talks about a minimum of only 30 days, so I'm just wondering if there's an opportunity to do something around limiting short-term rentals in already built inventory.
Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, City of Toronto
Obviously the housing accelerator fund is very much focused on new supply. I just want to highlight that, at the city, should we be able to secure some of the funding from the accelerator, then we can use that to respond to local need and local priorities. One of our key objectives is not just to look at the creation of new affordable rental supply but to support partners to protect what we already have.
We have a couple of big programs at the city. We have a tower renewal program, and we also have a multi-unit residential acquisition program that puts non-profits in great positions so that they can bid and acquire units on the market and secure them as long-term affordable housing. They may be naturally occurring affordable housing, but unless they're secured, then that can often change as a result of speculation. This is a local issue here at the city, and we could really apply the accelerator fund to help us with that.
On your question about short-term rental, I think you touched on something, which is that there isn't going to be one solution to our affordability crisis. Again, we need to protect existing supply. We don't just need to create new supply.
We also need an innovative and creative housing policy like precluding short-term rentals or limiting the impact on market rental supply. In addition, I would also include in that basket of policies things like a vacant homes tax, for example, so that we're really utilizing the supply we've created over many years to the benefit of the people who live and work in our city.
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Very quickly, do you have some data around who's living in these units? As I mentioned earlier, I'm concerned about persons with disabilities getting displaced along with single mothers and seniors. Is there any data that you could share in writing later with this committee about who is in some of that older housing supply, especially rentals, right now?
Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, City of Toronto
Yes, we could look to see what we can provide for you on that. I don't have data with me right now, but we can certainly look. I'm sure other witnesses here would have information as well.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Any witness, if you have information you can provide in writing to the committee, it would be greatly appreciated.
Now we have Mrs. Kusie for five minutes.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would also like to thank the witnesses for being here today.
Eight hundred dollars is how much it costs right now to pay someone to stand in line for a passport at Service Canada. Many Canadians across the country are showing up at 8:30 a.m. and sleeping overnight in an effort to obtain service. In one situation, a family made five unsuccessful attempts to go to Service Canada to receive service and were not successful in receiving their passports.
Canadians are suffering, putting off weddings, births, family vacations, honeymoons and, in far too many cases, funerals. This government restricted travel for Canadians for an extended period of time.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
They had the opportunity to anticipate the pent-up demand and prepare for it.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Obviously this is an important issue that the member is speaking about, but are we talking about the accelerator fund and housing right now?
Conservative
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Thank you.
The government was also aware of the anniversary of the 10-year passport being implemented and failed to prepare for that. Canadians are frustrated and heartbroken. They need action and solutions.
With that, Mr. Chair, I move:
That the committee invite the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development to appear for one hour on the Service Canada delays for passport renewals and that this meeting take place before May 30, 2022.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Mrs. Kusie.
Mrs. Kusie has moved a motion. Is there any discussion on that motion? The motion is in order.