Finance committee  Thank you. Mr. Poilievre, you should have done your homework. Special rapporteurs are unremunerated, in fact. We were momentarily on the same page. Like you, I am worried about the fact that people who work in cities, whether they be teachers or baristas in coffee shops or nur

Finance committee  This is a major step for Canada and one that would have to be applauded, at least in my opinion, because Canada has long been completely out of step with international human rights obligations and other countries in denying that the right to housing exists at all. The government,

Finance committee  Can I respond, please?

Finance committee  Could I please finish?

Finance committee  Your interaction with me is unfortunately rather predictable.

Finance committee  It would be essential that the housing advocate be independent because they would be reviewing the policies and programs of CMHC and the ministry.

Finance committee  Absolutely, and I would iterate that it should only be systemic complaints, actually.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I mean, that's simply just good practice of accountability and transparency.

Finance committee  Yes, that's a common misperception of how this all works. The short answer is no. It's important that people have recourse mechanisms for systemic barriers to accessing the right to housing. That's very different from being able to knock on government's door, and say, “Hey, give

Finance committee  Of course, my colleague Michèle Biss already has mentioned the notion of progressive realization. That's how housing works. The right to housing is progressively realized. The adjudicative mechanism that's been suggested, both in the legislation as it stands and in amendments tha

Finance committee  Those deal with the sort of adequacy elements of the right to housing.

Finance committee  That's correct. This is different. This is actually very creative, and really, on the world stage, this is an interesting idea that the government is proposing and that civil society is advocating.

Finance committee  Internationally, we don't give rankings, but I'll put it this way: Canada would be in good company. The European Union—all of those countries— recognizes the right to housing, so you'd be in pretty good company.

Finance committee  Though it wasn't a question, I will just reference it. I take your point well. There isn't a place I've been in the world where there isn't poverty and homelessness, rural, suburban and in cities, so I take your point. It was a short statement and one sentence.

Finance committee  Thanks for that interesting comment and question. Absolutely, I've been working quite extensively at the municipal level in the last couple of years. Interestingly, my conversations with municipal governments are the same as my conversations with national or federal governments,