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House Hansard - 324

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 4, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 324 - Jun/5/24
Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)
  • Jun/5/24 12:00:26 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, tonight, I am glad to have a chance to continue pressing for badly needed investments in predictable, ongoing and significant investments for deeply affordable housing with a real focus on co-op housing. It is critical because we are in a housing crisis. One of the reasons for that crisis is that Canada has the lowest percentage of deeply affordable social housing stock in the G7. It is about 3%, or just over, of housing stock across the country, or about 650,000 units. Even if we were to double our social housing stock, we would still be the middle of the G7. It is clear that we are not going to solve the housing crisis unless we get more deeply affordable housing built. Co-op housing, of course, is a big part of this. In the past, we used to do this well. Back in the seventies and the eighties, for example, we got 60,000 co-op homes built. As one example, in 1982, 8% of all rental units constructed across the country were co-ops. It was about 6,500 units that year alone. It is investments like that, every single year, that led to the construction of co-ops such as Brighton Yards in uptown Waterloo, which I lived in for six years. Brighton Yards is deeply affordable, dignified housing with a strong sense of community. There are many others all across Kitchener, including in the riding I represent. There is Asgard Green in Cherry Park, Bread and Roses in downtown Kitchener, and Willowside Co-op on Victoria Street. It is clear we need to get back to building co-ops every single year. Instead, what has happened is that the federal government has stagnated in funding co-ops and, as a result, construction has stagnated also. In 2020, for example, less than 1% of all rental units constructed were co-ops, about 477 units. That is a far cry from the 6,500 built back in 1982. It is pretty clear we are going to need to continue to apply more pressure for the government to commit significant annual and predictable investments in co-op housing. The good news is that, because of that pressure from housing advocates across the country, the government did propose a significant new investment in budget 2022 of $1.5 billion. That funding was announced over two years ago. The government has not actually built any co-ops with that funding yet. The money has yet still to flow. Those funds could have built 6,000 units across the country. I last asked about this in question period in mid April. Here is what the executive director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, Tim Ross, had to say about the issue: “We have shovel-ready projects at risk of missing the 2025 construction season”. He also said, “Co-op housing is just the type of housing we need more of, to ease the affordability crisis. The federal government needs to launch the program in the coming months, so together we can create more co-op homes.” Could the parliamentary secretary explain to Canadians what is delaying these funds being rolled out? Could he then go on to answer when these funds will get spent so that these needed co-op homes will get built in my community and across the country?
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Context: House Hansard - 324 - Jun/5/24
Mr. Mike Morrice
  • Jun/5/24 12:08:27 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, at the end of his remarks, got to the question of this investment. The issue is that this investment was committed to two years ago. It has been two years since the government finally announced that it was going to get back into the business of building co-ops, and it has not built any. We are in a housing crisis. This is not a time to be spending two years talking about getting co-ops built. It is time to actually get them built. Could the parliamentary secretary at least share some explanation with Canadians of what has happened over the last two years? This investment was committed to, but two years later nothing has been built. Even better, can he share when the funding will flow so that my community and others across the country will see new co-ops getting built, which I know is what he wants to happen too?
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