Human Resources Committee on June 11th, 2026

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would very much like to thank the witnesses for joining us today.

Ms. Boileau and Ms. Soroka, your respective views are extremely interesting. We can see the pressure that the issue of homelessness, among other things, is placing on local authorities. Thank you. I may have the opportunity to come back to you.

I'd like to start with you, Mr. Edström.

As the member of Parliament for Shefford, a constituency whose main town is Granby, I can tell you that, unfortunately, I really have no choice but to take an interest in the issue of homelessness. The homelessness situation in Granby has evolved over the years. This was not the case before, but the City of Granby has had to tackle the challenge of homelessness head-on.

However, the main problem for the municipality of Granby and for you, as a representative of the Réseau Solidarité Itinérance du Québec, is the much-discussed issue of designated communities.

You are obviously not surprised that I am raising this with you again today. You have heard that Granby is not a designated community, despite the difficulties it faces and the need for further investment. In the Eastern Townships, resources tend to be directed towards Sherbrooke. We understand that Sherbrooke has its own challenges, but Granby needs more resources.

How do you view this issue of designated communities?

What should be changed for the future?

Why is it essential for Granby to become a designated community?

[Eric Edström]

Several towns find themselves in the same situation as Granby in this regard. I think the nature of homelessness has changed recently. Previously, people might have headed for the major cities. Now, they try to stay closer to their local community. I think we need to maintain this flexibility and adapt to changing circumstances.

Generally speaking, organizations that receive funding under the Reaching Home program or Quebec's interdepartmental action plan on homelessness are being held accountable. Strangely enough, no one ever has any complaints, so I think the money is well spent. Sometimes, however, it isn't spent where we'd like it to be, or on the services we'd like to see.

Therefore, there is often a need for the flexibility to recognize that, for example, in a slightly more rural area, outreach workers need to travel further and reach out to people who are scattered across a larger area. These people sometimes need services that aren't available locally. So, we need to be able to take money from certain budgets and allocate it elsewhere. If there is too much compartmentalization, we end up with money that cannot be spent. It might be allocated, for example, to the construction of a shelter even though the town already has one, when what we really want is to provide direct support on the ground.

I'll quickly draw a parallel. We may well have money and think it's a good idea to invest it in Sherbrooke, Granby or some other place, but we need to look at the bigger picture. We can't build a bridge in a location chosen simply on the basis of how many people swim across the water. At some point, we have to realize that services need to be well distributed and that people will try to find out what is available.

As things stand, in 2021 or 2022, several communities were not selected. However, it is now 2026, and the situation has changed. Programs must therefore adapt so that they can provide services where they are needed.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

This is what you bring to the table in your role within the Réseau Solidarité Itinérance du Québec. I congratulate you on that vision. As you say, we should have this broader perspective across the whole region.

As for the Reaching Home program, we fully understand what you are saying. I fully understand the need for predictability, funding increases and flexibility.

However, here again, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the program's future. In my area, I hear that people are extremely fond of this program. There is a bit of uncertainty about whether the program will be renewed and the direction things are heading. The Minister of Housing and Infrastructure is leaving room for doubt by saying that it is coming to an end and that it will become something else. We're not quite sure what the situation is at the moment. It's a bit unclear.

What impact does this have on organizations working in the field of homelessness?

[Eric Edström]

It is not clear whether the program will be renewed or not. Decisions obviously have to be made. When the announcement comes late, or if the program continues but we are unsure of its status, adjustments are made. Sometimes this involves spending money quickly at the end of the year because there are funds left in the budgets. So we're constantly having to be flexible, when we could be planning much more effectively. We know the program ends in 2028. We therefore need to start discussing right now what will be put in place.

There may be aspects of Build Canada Homes that can address some of the challenges posed by the situation, but we're familiar with the Reaching Home program. It's a perfectly decent program, and people like it. There's still room for improvement. The agreements have been signed, so we know the money reaches the organizations quickly.

If the government wants to start a new initiative and choose something else, it needs to do so quickly. This is causing people some concern. They're wondering what they'll end up with, whereas the Reaching Home program primarily needs greater flexibility and predictability. In itself, this program has proven its worth.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

You're right. I look forward to visiting the Coalition Impact de rue mobile unit in my riding. I know that other mobile unit initiatives are operating in the Rouville RCM to connect with people in Rougemont and Saint‑Césaire. Yes, things have reached that point. The idea is to connect with people where they are and focus more on prevention.

I want to pick up on the prevention issue again, because it always comes back to housing. The idea of affordability comes up a lot, and it's one of the criticisms we hear concerning Build Canada Homes.

It's all well and good to say that affordability is a big challenge, but I wonder what impact using a more unclear term will have, especially in Quebec. In Quebec, the community social housing concept is more familiar. It involves asking people to contribute a portion of their income toward their housing. That has a big impact.

[Eric Edström]

Yes, but that way, there's some accountability involved. The definition of social housing is clear. The cost is based on a portion of earnings. None of the other terms offer a clear, unequivocal definition of what the words “affordable” or “non-market” mean. There are different levels, and sometimes, that addresses a need.

Once again, however, we have to define exactly what it is. Affordable housing has no set definition. It sometimes comes as a surprise to learn what affordability really is. It's highly subjective and, as I was saying, housing is going to be affordable in 20 years. Right now, however, the people living there are struggling to put food on the table, and they don't want to wait 20 years. Any housing that someone keeps for 10 years will inevitably become affordable, but that's not what people want.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for being here today.

Ms. Soroka, I'm going to start with you.

I'm the member of Parliament for Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, so I'm relatively familiar with Edmonton.

I'm relatively familiar with some of the programs you run, specifically the bridge healing program, which I think needs more attention. It's a really innovative program, a partnership between Alberta Health Services and your organization, working with the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation and others. I'm wondering if you could explain what it is and what makes it different from basically every other program in Canada.

[Taylor Soroka]

We were originally funded by Alberta Health Services. Today our funding comes from ALSS. I forget what that's called. Someone can google it.

Bridge healing sits in between the hospital and homelessness. If you are unhoused and leaving the emergency department and if we have a vacancy, you come and stay with us. We do have wraparound supports, but one of the most unique things about this program is that it's person led.

I do want to be very clear, before I explain “person led”, that bridge healing fits into the continuum of housing programs that already exist. We catch people in the gap between emergency care and the street, but then we use housing first. We use supportive housing. We use seniors housing and veterans housing to get people to the next phase.

“Person led” means we meet people and see them as a whole person. We use emotional intelligence and try to help people unpack the backpack they've been carrying for the last 10 or 20 years. We have health care aids, social workers and nurse practitioners. It's health focused, but human centred and person led.

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

I was an MLA before I came here. We had lots of conversations about these kinds of programs.

One of the big pieces that a lot of people don't understand is that, when someone who's homeless ends up in the hospital—let's say their infection gets a little bit out of control—if they had a home to go to, they could be released far earlier because they would be able to maintain the hygiene requirements to prevent them from re-entering the hospital system. If they don't have a home to go to, they end up staying in the hospital at a cost to the taxpayer of substantially more money, and they're in a place that is not actually home or home-like in any capacity.

Part of the concept of supporting organizations like yours from the Government of Alberta, at least initially—and this is going back quite a few years—was the very concept of getting those people into a better program for what they actually needed, so that they could get that support.

Madam Boileau, are there any programs like that in the Timmins region, or anything like that which has that transitional housing to allow people to leave a hospital space or a medical space, to get into transitional housing?

[Michelle Boileau]

In fact, your question is timely because that's where we've identified the biggest gap in the continuum.

I've been pleased to learn that we've just initiated a similar initiative called the launch pad. It's an area, a room, a space in our current emergency shelter which is serving that same purpose. Again, it's that idea of eight to 12 people still living in a congregate setting but being able to support each other.

We are seeing that, but we're finding now that, due to its proximity to the emergency shelter and to encampments that have formed in the area, we might not be seeing the success we could be seeing.

That being said, in just six months we've been able to house 23 people successfully, and they still maintain their housing, so we know this program could work.

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

That's wonderful.

Ms. Soroka, as someone who comes from Fort McMurray and represents Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, I know that lots of people end up in the big city because it's easier to be homeless in an anonymous place where they don't have friends and family looking in on them all the time, and they can easily disappear.

How much of the population that you serve is from outside of the Edmonton area?

[Taylor Soroka]

That's a great question.

I can't give you an exact percentage for the bridge healing program, but across our programs, it's over 30% of people who don't call Edmonton their forever home.

We have people from indigenous nations across Canada and northern Canada. We're the gateway to the south. You said it exactly right. If you're accessing health care here, you might get lost; you might not make your flight home. A huge part of the Edmonton complexity is that we serve everyone from our northern communities, and they get lost in our system.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Mr. Villeneuve, you have five minutes.

[Louis Villeneuve, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today. They are making a valuable contribution to our work. So I want to thank them for taking the time to come and meet with us.

Mr. Edström, I was mayor of Bromont for eight years. Bromont is a small town with 12,000 residents. I was very active in the RCM and, like my colleague, Ms. Larouche, from the neighbouring riding, I saw homelessness change over the years. It is quite troubling. In fact, I saw unhoused persons even in Bromont, a small town with a population of 12,000. Bromont isn't exactly big.

In your opinion, has the profile of unhoused persons changed over the years?

If so, what accounts for the change?

[Eric Edström]

There's been a change. One of the main causes is evictions. That's why people are ending up on the streets.

A count was done not that long ago. The number of unhoused individuals in Quebec—people visibly without housing—is the same as the number of people living in Bromont. About 12,000 people, spread across Quebec, are experiencing visible homelessness.

That said, they may have been experiencing hidden homelessness before that. That's something else that has changed. People exhaust their options. They are no longer couchsurfing or living in someone's basement. Now, they are forced to camp outside quite involuntarily.

I think that a growing number of people like these are ending up on the street. Once, they had a place to go, they had a social safety net, but it developed more and more holes. We have to equip that safety net with multiple layers of support. Once we've helped them get housing, people need access to an adequate income, health care, food, transportation and safety.

In the long run, a kind of deterioration can occur on several levels. People end up stretching their budgets to the limit. A minor setback sometimes forces them to take in a roommate. At some point, they lose their apartment.

We did a count and it produced quantitative statistics. The qualitative data are coming a bit later this fall, and then we will be able to see why people become unhoused, where they were before and what was going on.

That said, even with the data we have, which dates back to 2022, we already know that things have changed. We perceive a kind of gradual exhaustion. For some, it's almost like torture. Eventually, they reach a breaking point and, unfortunately, they temporarily end up on the street.

Living in a car is never easy. Fady Dagher, now chief of police with Montreal's Service de police de la Ville de Montréal—and previously chief of police for Longueuil—went to spend the night with unhoused persons for a few days. He said that after two or three days, he, a person healthy in mind and body, slowly began experiencing mental health problems. Homelessness wears down even those who start out perfectly stable. The experience leaves them with multiple traumas, and makes them harder to help.

So the goal is to be able to catch people early on. The profiles have changed. We are going to learn a few more details about the nature of these changes, but there's a kind of distress that pulls people closer and closer to the streets. Unfortunately, it's getting easier to end up in these extreme situations.

[Louis Villeneuve, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

A while ago, you mentioned a comprehensive approach. I'll give you a chance to finish your thought. Would one minute give you enough time to tell me a bit more about that?

If you had a magic wand and could make just one wish today, what would it be?

[Eric Edström]

The famous magic wand that belongs to no one.

[Louis Villeneuve, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

I wish it really did exist.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

My daughter has one, Mr. Villeneuve.

[Eric Edström]

As things stand, the situation definitely crosses party lines. I speak with Liberal MPs and Conservative MPs. What I want is for people to come together and collectively find solutions that allow organizations on the ground to accomplish their missions.

What sometimes happens is that benchmarks are set and people try too hard to direct things. They say that the money should go to such and such a location and they cling to what's been proven. However, what's been proven applies only to a specific context, specific locations or specific situations.

As you know, we've been trying for about 40 years to find a miracle cure, using a magic wand or other means, that would work from coast to coast to coast and fix the situation for everyone. We tried different things, but clearly, a number of them failed. What the organizations are saying, and what seems to be a matter of consensus, is that we have to allow for flexibility and quit setting budget restrictions that stop us from spending money on what's needed, where it's needed.

[Louis Villeneuve, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. That was a good question.

Ms. Larouche, you have two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Soroka, thanks again for joining us and for sharing your point of view. It's extremely interesting.

That said, I'm now going to turn my attention to M. Edström.

It's true that everyone is just one misfortune away from ending up on the street. In secondary school, I volunteered with Maison du Père. After serving soup, I talked with someone who was unhoused. He was a lawyer who was going through a tough time after a divorce. He ended up on the street. That shocked me. We need to remember that we are all just one misfortune away from the street.

I would now like to talk more about the state of homelessness. Right now, it seems that not a week goes by that I don't see some news or other about homelessness. The Journal de Montréal reported that a record number of seniors are increasingly falling victim to renovictions. Even with a fixed income, new housing can be impossible to find. So, they end up on the street. I'm also thinking about women experiencing hidden homelessness, or victims of spousal violence trapped in a cycle of violence for fear of ending up on the street. I could also talk about the City of Saguenay, which is striving to become a model in homelessness management.

In fact, while we are on this topic and considering your position, are you aware of other Quebec-based models in this field?

To see the kind of news we saw this week, that Saguenay wants to become a model in managing homelessness, only confirms that the problem exists across the region now.

[Eric Edström]

I am in charge of monitoring and reviewing the Canadian press coverage on homelessness. The things I have seen have truly changed me. I did not find out today that Edmonton is Canada's “frostbite capital”. These are isolated incidents, but if we look beyond the story, we can see there are indeed patterns. There are ways to do things everywhere, but this entire vision stems from the fact that homelessness is unacceptable. People need to have a decent income at the very least.

Furthermore, if we work on the first layer of support—that is, if we work to improve conditions for society as a whole—we'll prevent homelessness for a great many people. Think of homelessness as a kind of vortex that pulls you in and slowly drags you toward despair. If we can prevent people on the edge of the vortex from falling into it, we've made progress. The further people are inside the vortex, the more energy it takes to pull them out of a situation that is slowly leading them toward homelessness. It's just as difficult for people who are currently experiencing homelessness.

It's a good thing that cities want to take action. Much of the authority lies with the provincial government, and the funding is there, among other things. We need to help them.

There must be genuine collaboration between the federal, provincial and municipal governments to avoid duplication and to be as effective as possible.