Federal government already acting on housing

A new arrival to federal politics was recently in St. John’s where, according to a Telegram report, he was impressed with the good space the Network Café provides for the community.

I wholeheartedly agree on that point, having held a number of public events there. While in St. John’s, the freshly minted leader of the NDP also created a misleading impression that I hope you will allow me space to address, when he urged our federal government to act on housing.

In fact, we are taking very concerted action.

Your federal government has invested heavily in housing.

Since taking office two years ago, your federal Liberal government has invested over $130 million in housing in Newfoundland and Labrador. Those dollars are at work right here, right now, in our province, helping community organizations to help people every day. We engaged before we had completed a comprehensive strategy because, when it comes to housing and shelter, those in need require an immediate response.

At the same time, we plotted a course for better housing in the future. Under the 10-year National Housing Strategy announced by the prime minister in November, $40 billion more will be spent over the next decade across Canada. The National Housing Strategy aims to build 100,000 new affordable housing units and repair and upgrade 300,000 social housing apartments and homes. It will also deliver financial support to almost 300,000 people who struggle to pay their rent.

In total, the National Housing Strategy is projected to lift 530,000 Canadians out of core housing need.

By comparison, the NDP has no long-term plan or target. Their last campaign platform promised a lot less than we’ve already done and will continue to do over the next 10 years.

In their 2015 election campaign, the NDP pledged to spend a mere $40 million nationally over four years on homelessness — $10 million the first year, and then $10 million per year after that. This was on condition however, that they would balance the budget first. If they didn’t balance the budget, all commitments were off.

Even if the NDP had balanced the budget, their housing program called for no new investments to construct affordable rental housing over the last three years of their mandate.

For Liberals, it was unthinkable to ask the neediest to wait out on the streets while Ottawa politicians studied the books.

To be fair, the NDP leader is new to the file. That’s clear. It’s good that he’s out here meeting folks.

While the leader of the third party was calling for action on this file, however, the provincial minister responsible for housing, Lisa Dempster, was in Toronto taking real action.

She was endorsing an historic housing accord with the federal Minister responsible for housing, the Hon. Jean-yves Duclos.

The accord is the first step in developing operating agreements with provincial housing authorities and protecting the funding for places like End Homelessness and The Gathering Place in St. John’s. This framework clears the way for a more detailed bi-lateral agreement between Newfoundlandlabrador and Canada that will move beyond the protection of existing affordable housing and open the door for even stronger investments over the next decade.

The previous Conservative government under Stephen Harper was cutting funding so drastically that local co-ops and provincial housing programs were being forced to halt repairs and increase rents to make ends meet. Those days are behind us and better days are clearly ahead, thanks to the leadership of our federal government in partnership with our provincial, territorial, municipal and non-profit partners.

The NDP leader opined during his visit that the issues facing people are real and said that he would continue to use his platform to talk about these struggles. That’s all well and good. But our government isn’t just talking. It’s acting — especially on housing.

As a Member of Parliament for the province, I can and do attest that the housing challenges faced by people in Newfoundland and Labrador have our full attention.

Nick Whalen MP St. John’s East