Housing Minister Sean Fraser advocated for the government to offer housing to every individual who is unable to work.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada showed that the current number of unemployed individuals is 1,229,400.“If you are an adult working in Canada, you should be able to buy a home,” Fraser testified at the Senate Banking committee. “That is my belief.”“If you cannot work, you should have a home too,” said Fraser. “Government should work together to provide it to you. In a country as wealthy as Canada, it is very difficult to accept that people go to sleep without a roof over their head. These problems are solvable.”Chronic homelessness should also be eliminated, said Fraser. “People do not choose homelessness.”“I do not feel that I have solved the national housing crisis if I am in a city going to an appointment for work and there are people living on the street.”“We have solved the crisis if we are able to provide affordable rent at the price people are paying right now, and if you are working in a job, you can afford to get into the market if that is what works for you,” said Fraser.The housing minister did not clarify how the cabinet intended to address the housing shortage, as identified in the 2022 CMHC report Canada’s Housing Supply Shortages: Estimating What is Needed to Solve Canada’s Housing Affordability Crisis by 2030.Restoring "affordability" would require 744,000 housing starts annually over the next decade. This is nearly three times the number of homes ever constructed in a single year, which was 273,200 in 1976.“Our research shows that reaching our goal would take an investment of about $1 trillion,” Bob Dugan, CMHC chief economist, testified on October 27 at the Senate Banking committee. “This is a staggering sum of money.”In separate testimony on September 29 at the Commons Finance committee, Dugan stated that even if the "affordability" target were achieved, there would still not be enough homes for everyone.“It doesn’t take care of that part of the market that is most in need, the lower income folks,” said Dugan. Record construction would “still leave us in a position where we still have affordability challenges for certain target populations that are lower income, that are not as well served by the market.”In a 2019 National Housing Strategy Act, Parliament enshrined “a right to adequate housing” in federal law. The obligation was not legally defined.“There has been housing injustice in Canada,” Marie-Josée Houle, cabinet’s Federal Housing Advocate, wrote on July 11 in her first Annual Report to Parliament. “The Government of Canada must put its money where its mouth is and uphold its human rights obligations, end homelessness and put the human right to adequate housing at the centre of economic and social policy.”Houle recommended Parliament federalize rent controls, impose a national moratorium on evictions, “strengthen tax and anti-speculation measures to combat the financialization of housing” and curb real estate investment trusts.
Housing Minister Sean Fraser advocated for the government to offer housing to every individual who is unable to work.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada showed that the current number of unemployed individuals is 1,229,400.“If you are an adult working in Canada, you should be able to buy a home,” Fraser testified at the Senate Banking committee. “That is my belief.”“If you cannot work, you should have a home too,” said Fraser. “Government should work together to provide it to you. In a country as wealthy as Canada, it is very difficult to accept that people go to sleep without a roof over their head. These problems are solvable.”Chronic homelessness should also be eliminated, said Fraser. “People do not choose homelessness.”“I do not feel that I have solved the national housing crisis if I am in a city going to an appointment for work and there are people living on the street.”“We have solved the crisis if we are able to provide affordable rent at the price people are paying right now, and if you are working in a job, you can afford to get into the market if that is what works for you,” said Fraser.The housing minister did not clarify how the cabinet intended to address the housing shortage, as identified in the 2022 CMHC report Canada’s Housing Supply Shortages: Estimating What is Needed to Solve Canada’s Housing Affordability Crisis by 2030.Restoring "affordability" would require 744,000 housing starts annually over the next decade. This is nearly three times the number of homes ever constructed in a single year, which was 273,200 in 1976.“Our research shows that reaching our goal would take an investment of about $1 trillion,” Bob Dugan, CMHC chief economist, testified on October 27 at the Senate Banking committee. “This is a staggering sum of money.”In separate testimony on September 29 at the Commons Finance committee, Dugan stated that even if the "affordability" target were achieved, there would still not be enough homes for everyone.“It doesn’t take care of that part of the market that is most in need, the lower income folks,” said Dugan. Record construction would “still leave us in a position where we still have affordability challenges for certain target populations that are lower income, that are not as well served by the market.”In a 2019 National Housing Strategy Act, Parliament enshrined “a right to adequate housing” in federal law. The obligation was not legally defined.“There has been housing injustice in Canada,” Marie-Josée Houle, cabinet’s Federal Housing Advocate, wrote on July 11 in her first Annual Report to Parliament. “The Government of Canada must put its money where its mouth is and uphold its human rights obligations, end homelessness and put the human right to adequate housing at the centre of economic and social policy.”Houle recommended Parliament federalize rent controls, impose a national moratorium on evictions, “strengthen tax and anti-speculation measures to combat the financialization of housing” and curb real estate investment trusts.
