Human Resources Committee on Oct. 30th, 2023

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

I think I have 25 seconds, so I'm not going to ask you a question, but you do underline something that's incredibly important.

The various transitions that are required are very complex, to say the least, but the fact that there is a pathway that people can take and that pathways remain available is a promising thing. To my knowledge, this didn't really exist prior to the implementation of the national housing strategy. Is that correct?

[Kelly Gillis]

That's correct.

With regard to Reaching Home, we did have a homelessness policy before that, which was Housing First, but that really prioritized housing first, above and beyond the integrated wraparound services.

When we look at international best practices and at working with the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness and seeing how others have actually had success at homelessness, we see that it's about making sure that communities understand and that they have coordinated access and tailored supports so that those in need can get the services they need within their communities.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

I guess I did ask you a question.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Fragiskatos. Your time is gone.

Ms. Chabot for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you.

I'll continue with Ms. Gillis and the issue of homelessness.

Ms. Gillis, last July, our committee tabled a report on the national housing strategy. The report makes reference to a goal to reduce chronic homeless by 50%. The committee had asked that a plan on how to achieve that objective be tabled no later than December 2023.

It's somewhat concerning to hear people talk about stability. The goal is to reduce chronic homelessness by 50%; however, five years later, we're still talking only about stability.

What plan do you intend to implement? What recommendation will you make to government? Does it involve additional funding or specific emergency measures? According to the 2022 Census, there were 10,000 visible homeless people just in Quebec.

Our committee asked that a plan be tabled by 2023. Is that plan already in the pipeline?

[Kelly Gillis]

Thank you for the question.

It's extremely important to do what needs to be done to help the homeless.

Regarding the actions taken by the government, it's important to note that the housing accelerator fund was doubled. It went from $4 billion to $6 billion. Furthermore, the government just launched the veteran homelessness program.

We're consulting the communities to learn what needs haven't yet been met. For example, we've just completed a survey on homeless outside the shelter network. We're looking at all that to determine what the next steps are.

We also created a new committee. We're working with the provinces and territories to learn what measures they're implementing to fight homelessness. We want to see if it's possible to better harmonize the various programs to ensure the best possible results.

A new federal committee was created with my colleagues to harmonize what Health Canada is doing with, for example, that being done by the provinces and territories. We'll look at everything and make recommendations to government.

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

Committees are great but when will you table an action plan?

[Kelly Gillis]

We'll table a plan once we have approval for the various stages, which will be made public.

We're also preparing reports, for example, on the veteran homelessness program.

We'll also make public our followup to the various requests and community consultations.

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

Fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Chabot.

We have Ms. Zarrillo for two and a half minutes.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

My question is for Ms. Gillis and Ms. Bowers.

Rents are disconnected from incomes, and it just can't continue. How can CMHC and Infrastructure Canada ensure that the low-interest savings that are being captured by REITs right now are passed on to renters to keep people in homes, reduce homelessness and focus on lowering rents instead of increasing profits for executives and investors?

[Romy Bowers]

One thing I would like to highlight for Madam Zarrillo is that as part of our mortgage insurance product development, we introduced the MLI Select program a year ago. In it, we tied more affordable premiums to social outcomes like affordability. We are constantly retooling our products to make sure all government programs support desirable social outcomes in the housing market.

With respect to rent increases in general, CMHC's position is that it's so important to establish that equilibrium between housing supply and demand and to look for the medium and longer term. That's the best way to assure affordable rents for Canadians.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Ms. Gillis.

[Kelly Gillis]

With regard to Infrastructure Canada's future programming, the government has made a commitment to linking the conditionality of our programming to accelerating and increasing supply as well as to affordable housing. We will be looking at having that as our prerequisite for access to infrastructure programming.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Ms. Gillis, to follow up on that, what kind of data is needed? As MPs on the ground who are in the community talking to people, how do we proactively start setting benchmarks and make room to collect the data? What data do we need?

[Kelly Gillis]

Thank you very much for the question.

When we're planning infrastructure investments at the community level by looking at housing needs assessment at a granular level, understanding the community demographics, the growth trajectory, where people live and the income levels as we plan out communities is important. Some communities have already required that. Certain communities in the province of B.C. have that requirement.

I think that is a necessity as we look at making sure communities have the information they need to plan accordingly, but we also have to make sure we have aligned investments to meet the community needs now as well as in the future.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you.

Ms. Gillis, there are almost 200 homeless people in my community who will have nowhere to go over the foreseeable future, because we don't see any urgency even today in our questioning and answering. What can we do now to get those people into homes in the next eight weeks?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Please give a short answer.

[Kelly Gillis]

Working with your community entities and your non-profits.... Certainly we're very active in working with the provinces in the community entities that we fund.

I think there is a sense of urgency and of wanting to work very collaboratively to find solutions for the communities across the country that are dealing with this really important issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Ms. Gillis.

If you could make sure I get some updated contact information of who the representatives are in B.C., that would be greatly appreciated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madam Zarrillo.

I have two minutes. I'm at the hands of the committee. I don't think we can start....

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I have about 12 minutes of questions, but I can get it down to two.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Okay, you have less than two minutes, Mr. Aitchison.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Very quickly, Ms. Gillis, I want to go back to the infrastructure announcements related to transit in Toronto and the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension. I realize there's an analysis going on right now, and part of that analysis will include housing. How much money was committed to what's already being built on the Eglinton Crosstown line?