Public Accounts Committee on May 18th, 2023

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Yes, absolutely.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Desjarlais, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

We got no information in the last round when I questioned you about this. You had no advice for the houseless community in Edmonton, which is growing. I spoke to the mayor of Edmonton, and he said to me that you, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister met with the City of Edmonton. You committed to a project. They forwarded to me the correspondence for that request, and then they were systematically denied.

What do you have to say to the City of Edmonton, which supplied many shovel-ready projects—and many of these would go directly to supporting people in my community—but just a month and a half ago they were denied?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

First of all, I would say that I did provide as many answers as possible in the previous round, so I reject that assertion.

In terms of Edmonton, we've invested in all three rounds of the rapid housing initiative. We were able to select Edmonton as one of the cities that would receive money under the city stream of the rapid housing initiative, and also the project stream, so I expect that the third round would be exactly the same. We have a good record of collaboration and support to Edmonton.

The same goes for—

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

I just mentioned that the City of Edmonton came to me—your former colleague—and they said they were disappointed that they weren't able to receive a positive response from their—

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

For which project? You'd have to give me details on the project.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Excuse me, Minister. I'm just going to finish my sentence, please.

They told me they were unable to have a positive response following your commitment. I'll leave that for now. Hopefully, you can provide a response in writing to this committee at a future date. I'll move on to my next question.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Please provide details.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

I've asked you what advice you had for the houseless community. You said that jurisdiction is not your problem—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Excuse me, Mr. Desjarlais.

Minister, is it possible that you can provide that?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

You will have to provide details about the project. I don't know what project the member is referring to. I'm happy to support the member's request—

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

It's the City of Edmonton's ending houselessness plan.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Okay.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

They have one. It's been 10 years. You should know about this. It is shocking—

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Well, I do, about—

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

—but I will now move—

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

You will have to provide details.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Gentlemen, go through me, please. I appreciate it, but try to minimize the back-and-forth as much as possible.

Mr. Desjarlais, you have about 40 seconds left. I'll turn it back to you.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you very much.

You mentioned jurisdiction as one of your defences today, that it's not all your problem. You've said that you're doing enough, but the reality is, Minister, that you have to recognize that people are dying of houselessness in Canada. We had 46 deaths in the city of Edmonton, one of the highest recorded deaths of houselessness in this country. It happened.

Do you take any responsibility for the fact that these programs aren't in fact touching the lives of the people who need them most? Those are not my words. That is the report of the Auditor General: that the ministry didn't have knowledge of whom it was serving and that at times could not identify whether or not the programs had matched the results to those who need it most.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

That's your time, Mr. Desjarlais, but I will allow the minister to answer, please.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

First of all, I never said that we've done enough. I clearly said that we've done a lot but there's more work to be done. That's number one.

Number two, our programs are impacting people. The Auditor General pointed to a lack of adequate data from the organizations. We're working with them to get that data and to better report.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you very much.

We're turning now to Mr. Perkins.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just in order to save time, Minister, could I ask you or your team to table a couple of things in writing?

Paragraph 5.9 of the Auditor General's report lists six metrics for the national housing strategy. I'm wondering if you could provide to the committee in writing the progress to date on the numbers, the metrics that you used for that, and where we are in achieving that progress, if you could. Is that okay?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I'll confirm at the end, Mr. Perkins. Just continue.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Second, could you provide to the committee, also in writing, the administrative cost for each of these programs as a percentage of the overall budget?

Thank you.