Finance committee  The decline in rental housing units still considered affordable is due to changes in the rental price range. When you look at the graph—which I can forward to you, Mr. Ste‑Marie—you see that the number of units renting for less than $750 a month is dropping, while the number of u

Finance committee  Housing seems to have garnered a lot of attention in the pre-budget announcements over the past few weeks. Expectations for the next budget are higher. We encourage parliamentarians to keep in mind Canada's commitment to gradually implement the right to housing and to make targe

Finance committee  —when those billions in public funding should go towards helping renters whose needs are most urgent.

Finance committee  I was saying that removing the GST from all new rental housing in no way guarantees that the housing that is built will do anything to address the affordability crisis, which is a huge problem. We do, however, support a targeted GST exemption for co‑operatives, not-for-profit or

Finance committee  That's absolutely right, Mr. Ste‑Marie. I want to take a moment to thank you for inviting me to speak with the committee. We believe the public funds that have already been set aside should support non-profit housing. Halfway through the national housing strategy, which covers

Finance committee  I would add that the Standing Committee on Finance is probably familiar with last year's Scotia Bank report and the Royal Bank of Canada's more recent report. Housing advocacy groups like FRAPRU and a number of other groups across the country are not the only ones calling on Can

Finance committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. The Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain, FRAPRU, is a group of 141 community organizations active in the various regions of Quebec, including 30 housing committees and tenant associations that are at the heart of

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I didn't mention the federal surplus land initiative. Unfortunately, that initiative was also used mainly for private housing projects. So we can see the negative effect of not targeting investments enough to ensure that initiatives serve the non-prof

Finance committee  Yes. Recently, that's made headlines in Quebec. I'm thinking in particular of the $900 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund, which mayors discussed at the end of the Homelessness Summit. It takes a long time. It can take up to three years for an agreement to be signed with

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. Let's recall that this initiative was set up in the fall of 2020, during the pandemic. Initially, it was not part of the National Housing Strategy initiatives and funding. The initiative was divided into three phases. In Quebec, in particula

Finance committee  We agree with the previous witness. Market-based solutions have been favoured by the federal government for over 25 years, since it withdrew from direct funding of social housing. The housing and homelessness crises, felt from coast to coast in Canada, are partly due to the feder

Finance committee  Good day, Mr. Ste-Marie. I think it was a little obvious, but I didn't have time to read our recommendations to the Standing Committee on Finance for the next budget. First, we ask the committee to urge the government to reallocate, as requested by many of the organizations I

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. It's important. “Affordable housing” is an elastic concept. When you look at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's definition of affordability, it's when you don't spend more than 30% of your income on housing. Different federal programs defin

Finance committee  Good day. Le Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) is a group of 145 social and community organizations active in various regions of Quebec. These include 30 housing advisory committees that are at the heart of FRAPRU’s initiatives. For 45 years, FRAPRU has

Finance committee  Great. The FRAPRU isn't in favour of a guaranteed minimum income. We think that, under the current system, it could actually weaken the social safety net. As we can see from the current situation, the social safety net is crucial, even though some programs weren't sufficient a