Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise in the House today to present my report “Housing and Homelessness: Still an Unnatural Disaster”.
I visited seven cities and met with housing advocates and activists who gave compelling evidence on how Canada's housing crisis is getting worse and affecting more and more Canadians.
The recent housing framework agreement provides less than one-tenth of what is really needed for affordable housing in Canada. The fact that the federal government, with the provinces and the territories, has even agreed to a framework at all is due to the outstanding work of organizations like the National Housing and Homelessness Network and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which have brought national attention and visibility to the situation facing millions of Canadians.
We have to do more. My report calls on the federal government to recognize housing as a human right and to make affordable housing a priority in the upcoming budget.
I challenge the Minister of Finance to heed his own words, said when he was in opposition, to invest in social housing and not leave Canadians out in the cold. Every single family and individual has the right--