Madam Speaker, when we think about housing, most of us spend our entire lives or at least 20 to 25 years paying for one house. Housing is a human right. We deserve to have shelter to protect us from the elements. We bring up our families in our houses. Yet housing is becoming further from most of us as poverty grows in this country. As the gap between those who have and have not grows, more and more people will be without housing.
The co-operative housing movement has provided places for those who would not otherwise have a chance to put a roof over their heads, for those who would not otherwise have a chance for home ownership. Over the last 25 years that movement has provided an avenue for housing.
For more than 25 years the co-operative housing movement and the Government of Canada were partners in building a Canadian co-operative housing sector. The unilateral decision by the federal government to terminate this partnership will affect more than 60,000 co-op units and far more individuals who live in those houses.
No other housing program has created the strong sense of community so characteristic of co-operative housing. Rather than terminate such a valuable partnership, the federal government needs to develop new and stronger partnerships between Canadians and their housing co-operatives. This is one of the few supports available for urban natives. There are very strong urban native housing co-operatives across this country. They are completely dependent on it. This change will destabilize that sense of ownership, belonging and long term stability that co-operative housing has brought to senior single mothers and urban natives across this country.
The federal plan to devolve housing is threatening the future of the co-operative housing movement. Co-operative housing contributes to the alleviation of poverty and it increases living standards and develops a sense of community. The transfer of the housing co-operatives to provincial and territorial governments is threatening the stable, well maintained co-op community Canadians have built over the years and the investment the people of this country have made in this unique type of good affordable housing.
It is social housing self-managed by its members who are diverse in income, culture and education. It is a tool of national unity due to the fact that co-operative housing represents communities within communities across Canada that share the same philosophy, operating agreements and structures.
The federal government needs to recognize the uniqueness of housing co-operatives and their national position in Canada's social housing program and transfer that segment of the portfolio to the co-operative housing federation to look after it under the same contract it has had for the past 25 years to 30 years. The federal government must work with the national co-operative housing sector to find an arrangement that will preserve the successful features of co-operative housing.
This housing makes up 10% of Canada's federally assisted housing stock. The non-profit agency being proposed by the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada will specialize in managing the co-operative housing portfolio. Carving out that portfolio among 12 different jurisdictions will leave the co-op housing sector divided and without countrywide links to benefit all co-ops.
They are owned by their residents who volunteer time to their communities. Their operating costs are 19% below costs of municipal and private non-profit housing and 71% below costs of housing owned by the federal and provincial governments. In 1992 the value of donated time ran between $900 and $1,400 per household per year. Co-ops are accountable to their members, their residents. This means built-in incentives to manage well and keep costs low.
The federal government took steps to undermine the continued viability of Canada's housing co-operative movement. The policy being implemented by the Liberal government violates its 1993 electoral promises. In 1993 the Minister of Finance wrote a letter to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the co-operative housing federation, the National Housing Coalition, supporters of non-profit co-operative housing and the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association. He stated: “Our platform document provides a framework for government in the 1990s. While it does not specifically address our commitment to non-profit and co-operative housing, let me make it abundantly clear that the Liberal government is committed to stable and secure funding for the non-profit and co-operative housing sectors”. This has turned out to be untrue.
It is clear that the Liberal promise on social housing was like the promise to eliminate the GST and abandoning people in one million Canadian households living in need of adequate shelter. It is similar to the abandonment of those with hepatitis C, the east and west coast fishermen, our medicare system, young students struggling for an education, the EI program and those who are unemployed.
Canadians need housing. The co-operative movement is ready to take on that aspect and provide housing for those in need and we should support that.