Human Resources committee  I wish I were a tax policy expert, but I am not. I do think, though, that you can apply taxation to purchases of property. In that case, you can then apply some kind of tax. Ultimately, you don't want to damage the overall corporate structure. You don't want to necessarily damage

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. We absolutely have to. I think at least 350,000 units of—

Human Resources committee  We need to do that for no other reason than there are lots of Canadians who will never be able to afford to live in market housing on their own without assistance. The market simply cannot house people living on income support, unassisted. If you're on welfare in any province, yo

Human Resources committee  Really quickly, I want to take issue with one data point that Mr. Dickie presented. Just to put the Stats Canada data in real terms, there are estimates that, between April 2016 and April 2021, 253,000 to 331,000 renter households containing 531,000 to 770,000 renters were evict

Human Resources committee  I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the right to housing. I think that's key to eliminating homelessness in Canada. I supported and lobbied for the creation of the National Housing Strategy Act. Now the challenge with the act is that it applies only to the jurisdiction of Parliament

Human Resources committee  Part of our challenge is that we're in a significant hole. When you're in a hole, you have to stop digging. We have to think of a way to slow or stop this loss of affordable rental housing. As I said, you can probably do that through a combination of creating an NGO, like Ray S

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity to appear today. As you know, the term “financialization” is normally raised in the context of behaviour by some market actors who will purchase low-cost, older rental housing and increase the rent to gen

Human Resources committee  Thank you.

Human Resources committee  The short answer is not really. Longer term, organizations like Habitat for Humanity or some forms of attainable home ownership can actually move people out of social housing and out of rental housing. They can be an important part of the housing continuum, but people experienci

Human Resources committee  It certainly can be, if those hotels can be renovated to be effectively single-room occupancy.

Human Resources committee  Yes, I think there's a risk that federal dollars would end up displacing provincial dollars, and then that benefit is negligible.

Human Resources committee  We haven't included the long-term care sector in the calculation of our housing, but what is effectively done in long-term care is supportive housing. It's a form of supportive housing for people who are aging, but a lot of what we propose as supportive housing is in fact the sam

Human Resources committee  That's a great question. We should be looking at federal standards and expectations. The federal government shouldn't be shy about setting clear expectations, about setting standards and about having expectations for the dollars it has invested. That's basic duty to taxpayers.

Human Resources committee  I think so. The challenge is that there's only so much housing around to renovate. We see that challenge in Calgary specifically. Yes, it's an opportunity to move very quickly, but there are also other options. You can build, but supporting the income of Canadians at risk of hom

Human Resources committee  Sure.