SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 339 - Sep/19/24

Ms. Louise Chabot (Thérèse-De Blainville, BQ)

Sep/19/24 11:06:23 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will begin by saying that I will be sharing my time with my fantastic, esteemed colleague from Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères. I have had the pleasure and honour of sitting on the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities since 2019. Why is my Conservative colleague, who sits on the same committee, bringing up a motion now that was adopted by the committee on October 16, 2023? There may be several reasons. I should be in committee right now for an important study on the benefits of unionization, but instead I am here, discussing the merits of this motion that was passed by the committee in 2023. I would remind members that the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities recognizes that “Canada is in a housing crisis that requires urgent action by the federal government to end homelessness, and that this motion be reported to the House”. Let me recap the context in which this motion was unanimously adopted. Following its late summer caucus retreat, the current government said it would be prioritizing the housing issue. It did not clarify what concrete measures it would take, however. At the same time, the current housing minister stated that there was a housing crisis. Our committee was acknowledging the minister's own words about the fact that there was indeed a housing crisis. We did not just dream this up. Since then, the committee has had multiple studies on the national housing strategy. One of those studies, a very important one, dealt with the financialization of housing. We are finalizing the report for another, which highlights the disengagement of the two parties that have formed government since 2006, namely the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, as well as the repercussions this disengagement has had on Quebec and the provinces, as the minister himself recognized. These are major, important studies. What we have trouble understanding is why the need for urgent action on housing is not informing the federal government's policy-making in this area. I would like to say a few words about homelessness because, clearly, this issue really relates to homelessness. The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a very informative report in May 2024 that provided an update on federal spending to address homelessness. The report summarized the impact of the national housing strategy on homelessness. This 10-year strategy, from 2018-19 to 2027-28, aims to reduce chronic homelessness by 50%. In his report, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said the following: We estimate that interventions funded by Reaching Home are reducing the point-in time count of homeless persons by about 6,000 individuals (15%), relative to what the count would have been without those interventions. The situation in Quebec alone is unprecedented, with roughly 10,000 people experiencing homelessness. The Parliamentary Budget Officer goes on to say: We estimate that achieving a 50% reduction in chronic homelessness would require an additional $3.5 billion per year, approximately a 7-fold increase in funding over the National Housing Strategy average. These are serious warnings. Does the current government have any idea how bad the current impasse is or how it is depriving entire families and individuals who live alone of the most important thing in life, the right to a home? The answer is no. I said earlier that homelessness is on the rise in Quebec. My colleague from Shefford just spoke about the urgent need to take action in these regions to meet these needs. All of my colleagues here today could talk about extremely low vacancy rates in every region and the rising rates of homelessness. Today's debate is important because, if the government wants to set priorities, if it wants good press, it needs to recognize the role it could be playing in dealing with these issues. My colleague from Longueuil—Saint-Hubert toured all the regions of Quebec to shine a light on these issues. He even took it up again this year. The Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities has been hearing from groups of witnesses. The government appointed a federal housing advocate, who recently came to tell us about her shocking reports on the issue of tent cities and the financialization of housing. To deal with the current housing crisis, my colleague and the Bloc Québécois now have 12 measures that I could read out or let my colleague present. However, one of them applies everywhere, and it is our suggestion to prioritize the construction of social housing managed by non-profit housing groups, social housing that truly meets people's needs. Most witnesses, including the federal housing advocate, said that we need to increase the percentage of social housing by 20%. There is a difference between social housing and affordable housing. The housing crisis will not be solved purely through supply and demand by creating more housing units that are supposely affordable. In my riding, Thérèse-De Blainville, an affordable one- or two-bedroom home costs $2,000. For a single-parent family, for a single mother, for low-income individuals, that is not affordable. That is why we need social housing. We need to increase the stock of social housing by 20% to 30%. That applies everywhere. In conclusion, the Liberal government has re-committed to investing in the national housing strategy. However, this strategy is already a failure because the government is not meeting people's real needs. It has invested $82 billion, but if we look at the construction of housing units that really meet the needs of the low-income individuals who need them the most, the impact is minimal. The government needs to change course, focus on tackling the homelessness crisis, and focus on increasing social housing managed by non-profit organizations and housing co-operatives.

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Context: House Hansard - 339 - Sep/19/24

Ms. Louise Chabot

Sep/19/24 11:16:19 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would return the question to him. He is completely right that Quebec is in charge of housing. As far as federal agreements are concerned, the federal government plays a supporting role, but it cannot go over Quebec's head. What I am saying is that social and community housing are not the federal government's priority right now. Of the hundreds of programs that it put in place under the national housing strategy, only one worked really well, and that is the rapid housing initiative, or RHI, a rapid housing creation program under which community and housing organizations can apply for subsidies. That is what it should focus on. We have proposed all kinds of solutions. The CMHC's current strategy focuses on affordable housing. However, affordability is not clearly defined, since the definition varies from one program to another. We need to review that definition. Affordability should mean no more than 30% of an individual's income, not the median income of a community.

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Context: House Hansard - 339 - Sep/19/24

Ms. Louise Chabot

Sep/19/24 11:18:46 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.

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Context: House Hansard - 339 - Sep/19/24

Ms. Louise Chabot

Sep/19/24 11:21:54 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague asked a very important question. Co-op housing has never been a priority for the government. It has been a long time since a Liberal or Conservative government has invested in housing. Now the government suddenly wakes up, probably because stakeholders have spoken. Think of the recommendations that were made during my Bloc Québécois colleague's tour, the experts who testified or the federal housing advocate who had some strong words to say about this. At the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, the Bloc Québécois is lobbying to bring the issue of co-op housing to the fore.

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