Regional MP says ‘expectations are raised’

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“We are looking at the realistic horizon that is going to not just put a Band-Aid on the problem, but create the kind of deep change and lasting impact that we know Canadians are going to need,” he said at an event in Toronto.

“When we say the federal government is back for the long term, we mean it - and that starts with getting it right from the very beginning.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called the plan “timid” because of the delays in spending when the money is desperately needed now.

And Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said the strategy does nothing for lowering the high cost of housing ownership in major urban centres, only making a passing reference to exploring further options.

What the plan does is pull together almost $10 billion in planned spending, $11.2 billion in housing money outlined in this year’s budget, and $4.8 billion the Liberals promised to keep spending on funding to affordable housing providers. The rest is all from provinces, territories and the private sector to total about $40 billion over a decade. There are also strict strings attached. A new housing fund to create 60,000 new affordable housing units and allow repairs to 240,000 more, through grants and loans, will prioritize mixed-income developments and require about one-third of all those units to be offered at 80 per cent of median market rents for a 20-year period. (A mix of other funding is poised to create an additional 40,000 new affordable housing units.)

The government hopes the strategy will lift 530,000 of those families out of that core housing need category, help 385,000 more avoid losing their homes and lift 50,000 out of homelessness.

The $4-billion portable housing benefit could eventually help 300,000 households by 2028 and provide on average $2,500 a year in help, but only if provinces and territories match $2 billion in federal money and ensure the extra money doesn’t cause a jump in private rents. Mitigating inflationary pressures account for why the documents speaks of targeting the money to those in community and social housing.

The strategy also says the government plans to create a federal housing advocate and table legislation to enshrine housing as a human right, requiring regular reports to Parliament on federal efforts to ease the housing burden for hundreds of thousands of families.

The details of that idea and others in the strategy still need to be worked out, prompting municipal and housing groups to lend cautiously enthusiastic support for the plan.

Recently released census data found that 1.7 million households were in “core housing need” in 2016, meaning they spent more than one-third of their before-tax income on housing that may be substandard or does not meet their needs.

The government hopes the strategy will lift 530,000 of those families out of that core housing need category, help 385,000 more avoid losing their homes and lift 50,000 out of homelessness.

Wednesday’s news included precious little help for Indigenous communities, which is getting a separate plan that Trudeau said the government is still finalizing. Separate plans are in the works for First Nations, Inuit and Metis.

Prior the announcement, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen said he hopes the announcement will be good news for communities in the region facing a shortage of affordable housing.

“Is there a sense of hope? Yes, I think the expectations are raised,” Cullen said. “I’d like to see the government move with some urgency on this.”

However, following the announcement Cullen said the proposed measures don’t go nearly far enough to address the crisis.

“Boasting about billions of dollars to dig Canada out of a 20-year national housing crisis but spreading the spending over 10 years is bizarre. The Liberals call this a crisis but they aren’t willing to start spending until after they are safely re-elected,” Cullen said in a press release.

“The face of homelessness and affordable housing has changed completely over 20 years; we’re seeing tent cities pop up everywhere from Prince Rupert to Toronto.” — with files from Arthur Wiliams, Prince George Citizen