Human Resources Committee on June 18th, 2026

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

One interesting point is that we need to ensure funding is increased and that this is genuinely taken into account.

You mentioned a mobile unit. That is one solution. In Granby, thanks to the Coalition Impact de rue, we now have a mobile unit that travels around the area. There are also projects under way in the Rouville Regional County Municipality to enable us to reach out directly to people in Saint-Césaire and Rougemont, to find out where they stand in terms of prevention and intervention.

What have you observed thanks to your mobile unit, and what difference is it making?

[Sarah Vandal]

We already had this unit, which we were using to build links with community partners. However, when we came up with the idea of using it to travel around the area, it really helped us tackle a problem we were facing.

In our RCM, there is no organization that specifically serves people experiencing homelessness. Furthermore, the resources, which are centralized in Sherbrooke, are often at full capacity. Moreover, people in our area do not necessarily wish to relocate and completely change their lives by moving to urban centres.

This unit has therefore enabled us to cover the entire territory, which is relatively large, without necessarily disrupting the continuity of service. If we go to people, provide them with support and settle them in another urban centre, they will often return to their home area because their family is there. We know just how important social networks are. By doing this, we risk further isolating them by directing them to a temporary emergency shelter, where they have to start all over again every night.

We therefore prefer to reach out to people and really listen to their recommendations. No one knows their own situation better than someone experiencing homelessness. They are in the best position to tell us how we can help them in the most appropriate way possible.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I may come back to this during my second round of questions.

You mentioned the “quartier des tisserands” or weavers' quarter. You said there had been a change in the homeless population. It now consists of both older and younger people.

[Sarah Vandal]

Yes. We're well established in this neighbourhood, which used to be an industrial area.

Originally, our clientele consisted mainly of older people, particularly those receiving last-resort assistance.

However, in recent years, we have really noticed a shift towards a younger clientele. This may be because we have been involved in projects relating to homelessness. We now welcome a much younger group of people who use our services.

For example, now that winter is over, we are seeing every week at least three or four people under the age of 40 who come to use our services to wash, get clothes or receive food, and they do so on a regular basis.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Larouche.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being here.

Jason, thank you for sharing your story and for being so vulnerable here in our committee. It's incredibly important to hear the perspective of people with lived experience.

Earl, thank you so much. You're not here in the room, but I want to share with you that there were very few dry eyes in this room. A lot of kleenexes were passed out. Thank you for always being willing to share some of the hardest parts of your life to demonstrate that recovery is in fact possible.

Both of you men help make our society a better place by showing that recovery from addiction is not just something that could exist but something that does exist, and it lives every single day. I want to sincerely thank both of you for that.

Dr. Bardeesy, in hearing about what Oxford House does and their pre-treatment model, do you think that model or a model similar to it would help the people you support in Toronto?

[Andrew Boozary]

I'm sorry. I just want to make sure the question is for me. I know Karim Bardeesy well.

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

It is. I'm sorry.

[Andrew Boozary]

I apologize. I didn't know if Karim was in the room. It's hard to tell from here.

Thank you for the question.

I think our sense is that there are some superb supportive housing model examples. Oxford House is one that you mentioned. I think Jason and the other witnesses spoke really powerfully to ensure that there's not an abstinence model; that there are options for people in their recovery; that people can access mental health and addictions treatment; and that they can access various supports, both social and health.

Really, to me, having more of these integrated models that ensure there are health care and social care supports right where people live has shown a lot of effectiveness in terms of the evidence base we've seen.

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

Earl, where exactly is your pre-treatment housing currently located? Approximately how many people are you able to serve at once?

[Earl Thiessen]

Right now our model is only in Calgary. We have four homes and 16 beds. I have to brag a bit here and say that off those 16 beds, last year 231 people went safely to residential treatment. This is what keeps popping up in my mind: If we had 160 beds or 1,600 beds across the country, could you imagine the number of people who could find healing?

I also want to state that we do OAT. It's a very unique model. There are house leads in there. I think having peer support, as many of the other panellists have stated, and immediate support is crucial. We need that. Our house leads have lived experience. Actually, most of my staff are in recovery. A few are graduates of Oxford House. It's such a revolutionary model that I think it can have a massive impact on homelessness and addiction across the country.

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

I've had the absolute honour of getting to tour a few of your houses and meet some spectacular people. I've had the opportunity to reconnect with them a year out, two years out and three years out, and have seen this amazing piece and how their lives have been changed as a direct result of the supportive housing you provided and the path towards recovery.

Do you have any plans or intentions to potentially expand this? It's clear that there's a need.

[Earl Thiessen]

That's a perfect question. We're actually in the process of expanding this program to Edmonton. There's a desperate need. The homelessness issue there just breaks my heart.

I've walked those streets. I've talked to people. The wait-list to get into recovery centres is one of the biggest issues. I'm just happy that the Government of Alberta has approved funding to move forward there. We're going to start with two homes. I told them that within six months they're going to need two more.

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

I have a few seconds left. Are you able to receive any funding from the federal government, or is all of your funding coming from provincial and municipal sources?

[Earl Thiessen]

All of our current funding is from the province. We are going to be reaching out to the federal government, because this is revolutionary for the country.

[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, Mr. Chair.

Firstly, I would like to thank the witnesses for joining us this morning, in particular Mr. Miles and Mr. Thiessen. I thank them for sharing their experiences with us.

I also want to thank my colleague, the member from Parry Sound—Muskoka, for his opening statement and his willingness to work together across parties on this key issue. I really appreciate it.

I want to turn first to Dr. Boozary. We've heard today, but also in previous meetings, about how housing is really the foundation of addressing the crisis. It's not the only thing. We talked a lot about prevention as well, and I'll come back to that. It's also about ensuring that housing meets the needs of residents where they're at.

Can you talk a bit about the role of the provinces in providing wraparound support? I know that in the case of Dunn House, it's a successful partnership, but it's not like that for all other projects that move forward.

[Andrew Boozary]

I would echo the encouragement of member of Parliament Aitchison, who was speaking to the need for all parties to address this crisis.

Look at the example in Ontario and the supportive housing piece. The supports are crucial. When we look at where some of the housing first models in the U.S. and other jurisdictions have fallen flat, it's where there are not wraparound supports—to your point.

The supportive element of housing beyond the door and room is really, in many ways, the secret sauce to a lot of the success. In terms of the Dunn House model and social medicine housing, the province has been an instrumental partner in investing in wraparound supports, both for the health care resources that are there and for the 24-7 permanent supportive housing model.

I was really encouraged to hear Mr. Flack in Ontario speak to Dunn House 2.0 as a model of supportive housing that can not only help alleviate hospital pressures, but also build infrastructure and of course ultimately, from my vantage point as a physician, drive better health outcomes.

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

I'll continue on this. In a previous conversation, you and I talked about the cost. The provinces have a limited amount of fiscal capacity, but there are costs of homelessness outside of the human costs—which are the most important—in terms of hospital stays, ER visits and incarceration. How can we better make the case there? Do you have data that you could share with the committee on that, or anything you want to share today on it?

[Andrew Boozary]

When we look at the health economic analysis of the benefits of housing versus some of the counterfactuals, it is over $50,000 a month to be in hospital and nearly $15,000 a month to be in the provincial jail system, which has in many ways acted as a de facto mental health system, as people can access care and support there. That has been evidenced so powerfully today. It's around $7,000 for a shelter and less than $5,000 for supportive housing.

The cost calculus is really clear. I referenced “The Public Housing Dividend”. In some of the modelling that Scotiabank and partners put forward for investing in social housing, their projections are that there would be a reduction of over 500,000 hospital bed days over the next 10 years, and 147,000 emergency department visits would be avoided.

There's a real economic argument there and, as you mentioned, the human dignity piece that we've heard about so powerfully today. From an economic and cost-effectiveness perspective, I hope that seeing the major banks and the many different partners and communities make this case for so many years has more resonance.

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

Thank you, Mr. Boozary.

Mr. Miles, thank you again for sharing your experience and for the work you do every day in your community and with your peers as you try to support them.

You talked about the difficulty in accessing information and in figuring out where someone is on the list. What would have been helpful when you were going through this? We're trying to be better at integrating and coordinating so that people know where to find information. What could have been more helpful?

[Jason Miles]

First and foremost, we need more of every support. We need more pre-treatments, and we need more housing. The biggest struggle is that we have too many people trying to pull from the same cup, and it's empty.

Second, we really need clarity on the system. A lot of different housing developments are in the works, or have been in the past. There is always confusion over whether they're controlled by the municipality, by the building operator or by the developer, who is typically somebody else. It ends up leaving this confusion.

Somebody in the streets or somebody who is homeless is trying to work with their housing worker, and they hear about a building. They think, “Oh great. They're opening this building up. How do I get in there?” but nobody knows. Trying to find somebody who knows how to get into that building is very difficult. A lot of times, they're set up initially as “invite to apply” only. The building operator running them has their own people in mind they're trying to support. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we need more clarity in the system for those trying to navigate it, because it really is creating chaos.

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

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It really brings home how complex this challenge is and that we need to put in place a genuine continuum of services, ranging from prevention through to post-shelter support, including assistance with long-term accommodation.

Once again, Mr. Miles, Mr. Boozary and Mr. Thiessen, thank you for joining us.

We have a rather unique situation in Quebec. I shall therefore turn once more to Ms. Vandal.

We are less than two weeks away from July 1, and we know that in Quebec, this is a critical time for housing. Some people find themselves homeless or lose their homes.

What is the situation, with two weeks to go until July 1?