Human Resources Committee on May 28th, 2026

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

If I understand correctly, you're telling us that prevention costs less.

[Gilles Beauregard]

Yes, certainly.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Statistics show that the loss of affordable housing is the main cause of homelessness.

Build Canada Homes is the new federal agency, which will soon be a Crown corporation. It is providing an initial amount of $1 billion dollars to build supportive, transitional housing. Do you think its goal, which is to build affordable housing at scale, is a practical solution to reverse the trend?

[Gilles Beauregard]

I commend the fact that a lot of money is being invested. We will be happy that there's money for our projects. We're not quite sure how it's going to go. Build Canada Homes is being organized slowly, not quickly, but we also think it's important for it to not be at the expense of the Reaching Home program, for which we're requesting an increase and indexed funding.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

A 2026 CIRANO report determined that, for Quebec alone, the economic costs associated with homelessness for the 2022–23 fiscal year were conservatively estimated at $782 million. Should we present the fight against homelessness more as a social and economic investment?

[Gilles Beauregard]

As an economic investment, that's fine. However, earlier, I was walking around Ottawa and saw some pretty wild things. Things are pretty chaotic here too. As a father, it touches my heart that, yes, we can approach homelessness from an economic perspective, but these are still human beings. It remains unacceptable that we see people in crisis in Ottawa.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Beauregard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Joseph.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Clarkson, thank you very much for sharing a perspective from western Canada.

For my first question, I will turn to you, Mr. Beauregard. I commend you on your work. How many years of commitment were you referring to?

[Gilles Beauregard]

It's been 40 years.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

It is to your credit that you work in an environment that is not always easy.

As you said, things are very turbulent, but it's not just in Montreal and on the South Shore. I am a member of the National Assembly, and my constituency is Granby. Homelessness has spread enormously. Even in the suburbs surrounding major cities, homelessness is often less visible but growing rapidly.

Beyond the number of people experiencing visible homelessness, we could also talk about those experiencing hidden homelessness, such as women who, unfortunately, agree to sleep on a couch in exchange for certain services, under conditions that aren't always ideal. I'm also thinking of a story I heard last week about a mother and her daughter who are forced to stay with an uncle in a house with, to put it mildly, questionable sanitary conditions, because they have nowhere else to go. They can't find anything suitable for them. How does this reality manifest itself today—this hidden homelessness? How does it manifest itself outside of major urban centres?

[Gilles Beauregard]

Hidden homelessness is even harder to address outside major urban centres, in rural areas like Granby or other places, because it's hard to spot. When it's outside major urban centres, it becomes difficult for our teams to access resources and reach people, because they're so far away. When our teams go to their homes, the trips are long, and they see very few people.

We had a conference on homelessness in Sherbrooke on Monday, and one of the things that came up was the meaningful connection you build with the people you serve. When people are far away, that connection is hard to establish. Personally, I have family issues. I have to go see the person, and I have to meet them, because we're close. You have to build a lot of connections with people. Hidden homelessness is truly a major challenge for groups in Quebec and everywhere, I'm convinced of that. You have to be very proactive in these approaches. You can't be reactive; you have to reach out to people. You have to try to identify them.

It's important to have people doing outreach. A lot of outreach is needed. Let's try to get people out in the field. Increasingly, in Quebec, we're proud of our community policing services. They don't just respond to incidents; they do a lot of outreach. I strongly encourage this. We work with various police stations. I think we have some initiatives in Trois-Rivières as well. We have some in Longueuil. In Montreal, we have the Mobile Mediation and Social Intervention Team. It's important that we have a lot of people on the ground who aren't necessarily responding to incidents, but who identify individuals and sound the alarm if they think something serious is about to happen.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

The staff at the Granby police station, which I visited, have also developed significant expertise with community police officers, particularly regarding homelessness. Over the past two weeks, I've actually had the opportunity to speak with them. It's extremely interesting. There are also mobile units that have been set up to travel around and locate people, notably Impact de rue Haute-Yamaska. I also know that, in the Rouville area, they go out into the Saint-Césaire and Rougemont neighbourhoods. They do this because, outside major urban centres, the reality is that we have to locate people across vast areas to see what is happening and where these people are. So, I want to emphasize that.

Do federal programs take these regional realities and hidden homelessness sufficiently into account?

I'd like to go back to the Reaching Home program. Mr. Beauregard, I'd like to hear your comments, because there are new communities that would like to be designated. It's not normal that there are places on the South Shore that aren't designated communities, and that Granby isn't yet a designated community. These communities aren't getting their share of the Reaching Home program.

[Gilles Beauregard]

That's for sure. For those who weren't present, the concept was that in Canada, there were designated areas. There were about forty designated zones, including surely about fifteen in Quebec. Calgary was also one of them, as were Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg. In Quebec, there were several. However, unfortunately, there were places where there were no designated zones. Back then, that was fine, because homelessness was concentrated mainly in the major cities. Now, however, it has spread everywhere, and municipalities that are not designated unfortunately receive less funding.

This concept of designated zones could be somewhat re-examined as part of your review, because homelessness is a phenomenon that has changed, and this concept results in certain areas being left out and lacking funding. Our network is increasingly trying to ensure that the concept of designated zones is used less as an intervention tool.

On the South Shore, there have also been instances where federal funding was available, but it was not allocated based on designated zones. There have been agreements, but I think this should be reviewed.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

This week, I also received a letter from the Haut-Richelieu-Rouville Community Development Corporation regarding organizations such as POSA/Source des Monts and others in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu area. These people explained to me just how much they clearly need far more resources right now to take action, because the needs are there and growing.

[Gilles Beauregard]

Let me remind you of what I said earlier about follow-up. POSA/Source des Monts is an outreach organization. We're talking about support. That's what's needed, because, right now, yes, shelters are good, but support is also needed to ensure that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Beauregard.

Mrs. Goodridge, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for the work you guys do in communities.

Specifically, Ms. Clarkson, I had an opportunity to tour the Calgary Drop-In Centre back in August 2023 and got to see first-hand the spectacular work you guys do serving a very vulnerable population and specifically the successes of your targeted encampment program. I met many of the individuals you took out of encampments, and I got to hear their stories and about their journey towards recovery.

Could you talk a bit about that program? I ask because so many communities are having problems with encampments, but their provincial or local governments haven't taken the leadership role that Calgary and Alberta did to dismantle encampments.

[Sandra Clarkson]

Thank you for that.

During COVID, we had significant encampments build up outside of our main shelter facility in the downtown core of Calgary, and it was becoming very unsafe for individuals who were out there, for people trying to seek access to our services and for our staff to come to work.

We approached the Calgary Police Service with the idea of working collaboratively with them to address the safety issues of those encampments with a social-service-first, enforcement-second approach. We found there were many individuals in the encampment who were housed in the community but were using tents as cover for organized crime.

We took the time to figure out who was who in there and who was vulnerable and who was being predatory, and we really targeted social service interventions for those who were the most vulnerable and worked with them first. We housed 32 individuals directly from the encampment as part of that exercise. It was called Operation East Side. It was highly collaborative with multiple departments in the city and worked very well. That is something we will continue to advocate for each and every time.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

One thing that I find sets you apart from many other organizations that I've had the opportunity of touring that are in the no- or very low-barrier homelessness space is your recovery-oriented system of care. Can you speak a little more about the successes you see in getting people into recovery and on their path toward treatment?

[Sandra Clarkson]

With the increase in the toxicity of the drug supply, the opioid crisis and its impacts, at the Calgary Drop-In Centre in 2018, which was the first year we started measuring or counting the number of drug poisonings that we responded to, we had 87. In 2023, we had over 3,000. It's a significant increase. We thought, yes, it's important to keep people alive, 100%. They need to be alive to take the next step, but it's not enough.

We advocated with the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction in Alberta to provide medically supported detox or withdrawal management, as well as a recovery transition program for individuals so that we could offer something beyond naloxone. It has become a very critical and central point of the work we do.

The intention there was really about opening up more pathways to housing. If people are dealing with acute addiction issues, they're not going to be successful in housing, so this was a way to open that up.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

On behalf of Albertans, I want to sincerely thank you. The amazing work you've done is truly spectacular.

There's one particular individual I had the opportunity to meet when I went on that tour who is now living independently, has their children back and is doing spectacularly well. I've kept in touch with them. That started with the seed you guys planted when you allowed them to access recovery. You met them where they were at, but you didn't just leave them there like so many other places have done.

From the very bottom of my heart, I want to thank you.

[Sandra Clarkson]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Goodridge.

Ms. Desrochers, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Caroline Desrochers, Liberal, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you very much.

Esteemed witnesses, let me begin by thanking you for being here with us, but above all, for the work you do every day. It is incredibly important work. It is work you shouldn't have to do, because we hope to put an end to it. Thank you for being there day after day for the people who need it most.

Mr. Beauregard, as you mentioned, we are already considering the renewal of Canada's National Housing Strategy, one of the pillars of which will focus on combatting homelessness.

Over the past few weeks and months, I've done a lot of fieldwork to meet with organizations in different parts of Canada. What really stands out from these discussions is the importance of prevention, the importance of youth, and the importance of addressing the pipeline early on. So, right now, we need to work on two fronts: We must continue to ensure that we support people who are in a certain situation, and, at the same time, we need to work on the pipeline to prevent these situations from occurring.

The Reaching Home program is important. You mentioned designated communities. We are very interested in your recommendations.

Ms. Clarkson, later on, I'd like to hear you speak a little more about your suggestion regarding the initiative that, in your view, could help, and about how we might reassess the Reaching Home program by keeping what works well and correcting what needs to be corrected.

Obviously, the program to end encampments has been renewed. Initially, it was a two-year program that included emergency measures. It was renewed for a third year with an additional $125 million in funding, because we heard that this measure had really helped organizations gain a better understanding of what is happening on the ground.

So, my first question concerns the program aimed at ending encampments. It is directed to both of you, Mr. Beauregard and Ms. Clarkson, but please answer quickly, because I have two other questions. Do you find that this program has been very helpful in fostering better coordination among stakeholders in the cities where you work, in gaining a better understanding of the data and in doing outreach work on the streets to understand the needs of people living in encampments?