It’s sure a good thing her staff avoided booking rooms in “opulent” hotels when Canada’s self-described “watchdog for the homeless” jetted off on an extended junket to Egypt.Marie-Josée Houle, a former punk rock musician who is now Cabinet’s $213,000-a-year Housing Advocate, and whoever accompanied her settled for rooms at the Marriott and Triumph hotels in Cairo. If Houle hadn’t selflessly decided to rough it in these five-star hotels offering luxury accommodations and amenities, taxpayers would have been billed more than the nearly $14,000 we were saddled with..PYRAMID SCHEME?: 'Housing advocate' denies using taxpayer-funded Cairo trip to subsidize vacation .Admittedly, $14,000 is a crumb from the humongous pie politicians, bureaucrats, and people with snazzy advocate titles queue up to gnaw on. But these junkets on which they pamper themselves add up to obscene expenditures. There’s the added insult of dubious results. What do struggling Canadians get out of most junkets other than embellished reports from globetrotters trying to justify accomplishing nothing much, if anything at all, on all-expense-paid trips? How exactly did Canada’s hurting homeless benefit from Houle flying business class to stay in five-star hotels to attend the 2024 United Nations World Urban Forum?.Houle was a punk rocker in an all-girl band who turned to folk and indie pop, then to housing advocacy and activism..She was appointed in 2022. The three-year term was renewed in 2025. She brought attention to the lack of safe housing for Saskatchewan Métis and Inuit in Nunavut. She advocated for the human rights of encampment dwellers, for which a $500 million program was created under the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative in addition to other initiatives in place. Half a billion dollars plus, yet tent encampments multiply across urban and rural Canada.Houle told a Commons human resources committee in 2023, “It’s my job to be a watchdog for housing and homelessness in Canada.” .BORG: Quebec is the only province backing the federal ‘gun grab’.But the optics of this November Egyptian junket are really, very bad for this watchdog.November in Canada is brutal on the homeless. Many ride public transit offering no business class to escape the cold. Many find no room in overcrowded shelters. Many live in tents, boxes, or, if lucky, temporarily on someone’s couch. That $14,000 could have sheltered a lot of people, including homeless children, for a time — longer than the junket, anyway.The five-day forum ended on November 8, but Houle remained in Egypt until November 21. Why was a mystery. Was she working? On what? Talking to Bedouins about living in tents? Did she turn tourist and mount a sturdy camel to tour the Giza Pyramids and get lost in the desert for two weeks? .Nope. She took a vacation. A spokesperson denied Houle timed it to subsidize her taxpayer-funded flights, per Blacklock’s Reporter on Thursday. “After participating in meetings and the World Urban Forum, the Advocate extended her stay for personal reasons and paid for all associated costs,” said Véronique Robitaille.Access to Information documents indicate her personal charges at Cairo’s Marriott and Triumph Hotel totaled $1,671. Business class flights between Ottawa and Cairo totaled $6,624. Other expenses included a $1,600 cash advance for expenses..WIECHNIK: The absurdity of civilian resistance in a disarmed Canada.It was confirmed she billed $13,684 for the junket paid for with Canada’s maxed credit card. This junket prompted senior civil servants to question its cost and purpose, per Blacklock’s Reporter. Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard ordered Houle’s office to produce travel receipts. .'Housing advocate' billed taxpayers $14,000 for business-class Cairo trip .Staff scrambled to justify spending. Economy seating wasn’t available, someone said. Houle’s executive assistant wrote: “Even when looking at hotels, I avoided any that had an opulent name.” .Five-star ratings might be a hint.Confusion swirls around the junket’s purpose. First, it was said to be for “training.” Then the Travel Authority (TA) said it was to support UN housing objectives and to advance housing as a human right. Why, the trip’s timing was “fortuitous” given Houle’s “record of success and body of work to reflect upon.” Fortuitous! For whom?It said Houle promoted Canadian values, and the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA) passed in 2019 as a “model” for other countries.Did Houle manage to chatter about the latter with a straight face? At a UN forum? After the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights blasted Canada’s failure to fix an ongoing housing and homeless crisis? Shockingly, for once, the UN got something right..MACLEOD: Language over skills — why the 2026 immigration plan is a betrayal of the West.In Canada, the act is criticized for ineffectively dealing with the housing and homeless crises. Many desperately urge the Liberal government to alter it so it actually helps house people. As of last fall, $74.8 billion was committed to the planned $115 billion National Housing Strategy over 10 years.Yet Canada’s homeless population climbs due to many factors, including addictions, one-third of renters unable to afford rent, out-of-control immigration, and Liberal-unkept affordable housing construction promises..At least 300,000 Canadians are homeless. That doesn’t include the hidden homeless who temporarily stay with friends or relatives.Canada has about 600 emergency shelters providing thousands of beds.Last September, we learned illegal immigrants and refugee claimants use 13% of available family shelters, with 30% of them housed in hotels and motels..Liberals admit migrants filling homeless shelters but can’t say how many .The Infrastructure department said shelter users in 2023 rose 12% from 2022. That increased to 16.2% in 2024. .National homeless population rises 12% in one year .Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight dodged a question in a Commons hearing about how many veterans remain homeless since the $79.1 million Veteran Homelessness Program was launched in 2023 to “put an end to veteran homelessness.” Still no end in sight..Minister silent on veterans homelessness progress .There's a troubling rise in homeless young people between 13 and 24. Right now, at least 40,000 young Canadians face homelessness. About 6,000 of them sleep on the streets every night. The rest are hidden homeless. Before age 16, about 40% encounter homelessness..Houle, representing the federal government, had nothing to boast about to the UN crowd. But Robitaille insisted it was a legitimate expense. “Her work has garnered attention from the international community,” she said.Canadians are freezing in boxes and tents by rivers. It’s a wretched existence. How did they, or anyone homeless, benefit from Houle camping out at the Marriott that advertises rooms with scenic views of the Nile River?.BURTON: Mark Carney’s Davos pivot from globalization’s architect to its critic.Houle billed $75,665 in travel just during her first two years — hotel rooms ranged from $222 to $394 per night in four- or five-star hotels like the Delta in Winnipeg or Montréal’s Hotel Le Germaine. Apparently, when on the homeless watchdog beat, one simply cannot be expected to endure budget-friendlier lodging.
