Madam Speaker, on November 2 last year, I asked a question about the housing situation in Canada. A few days later, the government finally announced a few details on its national housing strategy. Yesterday, it tabled its third budget, which I must say left much to be desired on a number of fronts.

According to the last census, nearly one in five Canadians cannot find affordable housing and is forced to spend more than 30% of their income on housing. One of the least expensive ways to address this affordable housing crisis is to invest in social housing in order to prevent further homelessness. However, as I mentioned in my original question, more than 25,000 families in Montreal are on the waiting list for social housing. In Toronto, 58,000 community housing units are in need of immediate repair.

The longer we wait, the more habitable social and community housing we lose, and the worse the situation gets for vulnerable families stuck on waiting lists. After announcing its housing strategy, the government should have used budget 2018 as an opportunity to show that it is serious about tackling the housing crisis. However, like us, the municipalities of Canada and Quebec, which too often suffer the repercussions of the housing crisis, denounced this missed opportunity to support social housing.

In response to budget 2018, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which had been calling on the government to expedite the funding it had announced in 2017 for housing repairs, issued a statement that said:

After years of chronic underfunding for repairs, this move would have enabled housing providers to keep at-risk homes safe and open for vulnerable families. But instead of protecting this vital part of Canada's social housing supply, this budget delays funding for critical repairs that are ready to go ahead.

The mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, echoed those remarks:

The mayors of major Canadian cities had specifically asked the government to expedite funding for the renovation of the existing housing stock...and, unfortunately, it is not in this budget.

As I said earlier, the budget left much to be desired. By refusing to act now to prevent and address problems, the government is in denial about the depth of the housing crisis in too many Canadian communities. It is all well and good to give a little bit of money for the construction of new affordable housing units, but if we do nothing to stop losing units, we are not any further ahead. When we take a few steps forward in one area and a few steps backwards in another, we are not moving forward.

The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association also commented on yesterday's budget:

In response to today's federal Budget, the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA) today lamented the lack of a dedicated funding stream for the housing challenges facing Indigenous peoples living in urban and rural settings. Furthermore, although CHRA continues to applaud the release of the National Housing Strategy by the Prime Minister in November 2017, CHRA had hoped that Budget 2018 would provide new information regarding the status and implementation of the programs announced as part of the National Housing Strategy.

These reactions point to the fact that this budget is a missed opportunity to address the housing crisis right now. I will ask my question again.

Given that 90% of the amounts announced in budget 2017 for the next 10 years will be invested starting only in 2019 and that very few investments were announced in the budget tabled yesterday, why is the government not committing to immediately investing the necessary funds to maintain and expand the social housing stock?

Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet

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Adjournment Proceedings

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