Mr. Speaker, let me begin with a quote, which states:
I would encourage the member for Saskatoon West, as well as all members from all parties and all parts of the country, to become part of the government's nation-wide efforts to ensure that all Canadians have the safe and affordable housing they need and deserve.
Through you, to my hon. colleague from South Shore—St. Margarets, and to all parliamentarians on all sides of this House, I say that her call to be part of the government's efforts is exactly what my motion, Motion No. 147, is all about. It is about including all parliamentarians in our collective leadership to end and prevent homelessness. That motion, to remind Canadians, is to create a national plan to end and prevent homelessness, a plan based on results and outcomes. It is not about the political right or left. It is about rolling up our sleeves, and with relentless focus, ending homelessness in this country.
However, I am at a loss as to how we rally the support of Canadians, ourselves, and parliamentarians and tackle such an urgent issue as homelessness by saying that we will only go halfway. We are going to house only 50% of homeless Canadians over 10 years. We can and must do so much better.
We owe an urgent response to each and every Canadian living on our streets without safety or shelter. They are our children, our loved ones, our families, our friends, and our veterans. I want all Canadians to be able to hold in their hands our plan to end and prevent homelessness and say, “This is where my government is going. This is how they are going to get there, and I can hold them to it.”
I want to thank the countless number of Canadians and organizations who support and endorse my motion, organizations like Raising the Roof, the Peel Alliance to End Homelessness, OUTSaskatoon, Quint Development Corporation, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, the Canadian Housing & Renewal Association, Upstream, the mayor of Saskatoon, the YWCAs of Saskatoon and Lethbridge, the Simcoe County Alliance to End Homelessness, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, and the Alberta Federation of Labour, to name a few. I want to thank my fellow parliamentarians who took the time to meet with me to talk about how we can and must end homelessness in this country.
Two weekends ago, I held a town hall in my adopted neighbourhood in Ottawa at the Centretown United Church. Despite the snow, the lure of Winterlude, and the Super Bowl, people actually came. The one overriding question that emerged was this: where is the urgency by governments to end homelessness? Only one speaker that day got a standing ovation, and it was not me.
Tyler Palmer works for the Youth Services Bureau as a community developer working with tenant organizations. As a young person who has experienced homelessness, Tyler speaks from a place that most of us can only imagine. He said:
...homelessness is its own place: a world of fear and shame, that often feels impossible to escape.... it is hard to fathom why something so basic as shelter is still as elusive as it is, especially in a prosperous and stable country like Canada.
The face of homelessness is changing. It affects young and old, women, families, and children.
Tyler went on to say:
Many come from privileged or advantaged families. No one is immune.... [Many queer and trans youth] are still expelled from their former lives just for being who they are.... In short, homelessness is not just an economic problem, it is a human problem.... As a society, we are on the same road: all of us can do our part. I firmly believe that, only together, can we end the isolation and grief that homelessness creates.
I agree with Tyler. That is why I ask that we all work together to create a federal plan to end homelessness.
Ten years from now, let us not regret what could have been or how far we could have come. Ten years from now, we will have an opportunity to be proud of our efforts as parliamentarians toward ending and preventing homelessness in Canada. We will have the chance to be thankful that we worked together in 2018, that parliamentarians chose to recognize that housing rights are human rights and that our country refused to abandon the most vulnerable.
An urgent and bold federal intervention into the homelessness crisis is possible. Let us work together to build a plan and make sure we get it right. We need not wait for a more perfect time.