Finance committee  The first thing we have to do is make sure that there is no speculation and that the government does not contribute to it. When we fund private affordable housing, that housing can be purchased by an investor. Then it could become financialized, which defeats the purpose. To ens

Finance committee  If we don't do everything you talked about soon and on a big scale, we won't have a housing crisis; we'll have a social crisis. We have to make sure that we as a country wake up and do what we need to do to avoid that. We have all the tools; we just need to have the will and the

Finance committee  Yes. I just want to say that laws matter. When the Quebec government invests in a co-operative or a non-profit organization, certain obligations are imposed by legislation, in particular the Cooperatives Act and the legislative provisions for non-profit housing organizations. The

Finance committee  Recognition of social housing as a development tool and a way to uphold the right to housing, but also as an economic response so that people can have access to housing, is huge. That is why what we call affordable housing here does not correspond to that definition. Affordable h

Finance committee  Thank you for having us and for allowing us to participate in the committee's work and to highlight the importance of housing in the current crisis and its effect on the country's public finances. For those who are not familiar with the Association des groupes de ressources tech

Human Resources committee  It could certainly be useful, but it's not a cure-all. You may not know this, but we had to create the Fonds d'acquisition de Montréal—an acquisition, or investment, fund—in conjunction with Ms. Cyr's organization, Bâtir son quartier. We had to create the Fonds d'acquisition qu

Human Resources committee  A good example is with the RHI money that's been spent in Quebec. The agreement was that we had a lot of projects that were responding exactly to the needs that the program wanted, so we took the money. The Quebec government didn't index the amount of money to realize the project

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. When it comes to housing construction projects, what matters is ensuring that the focus is on the community. Governments and programs have to take into account the real needs of the people in the community. The government cannot simply issue a call fo

Human Resources committee  Our association has a $200-million operating fund and we are trying to acquire private sector housing to transform it into community housing. We take it out of the market. We take it out of speculation and we make sure that it will be in good condition and make sure that the rent

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee to inform its study on the creation of the housing accelerator fund. I'd like to begin by saying a few words about the Association des groupes de ressources techniques du Québec, or AGRTQ. The as

Human Resources committee  You have to go with the good faith. When somebody is clear that they won't use it, that's one thing, but when a government has a system in place and wants to use it in a different way, you have to get the flexibility to make sure that the money goes down. It's a question of ever

Human Resources committee  Exactly.

Human Resources committee  I don't want to get into the politics. That's for sure. I'm looking at projects for people who are probably in bad housing situations. For three years, because of the bureaucratic knowledge of who's responsible for what.... I don't want to know who's responsible. I want to make s

Human Resources committee  I think the government is trying to build new housing and making sure to deliver. Whether you put it in or not, the question is this: What's the accountability on the subsidy? At the end of the convention, I think the people in Quebec and the government do want new housing. They

Human Resources committee  I will just tell you that flexibility is definitely the answer, because with the co-investment that we have we're trying to make two programs work together, and they don't. We're trying to get the AccèsLogis in to fund the program, and we're trying to go to co-investment to get t