HOUSING STRATEGY
Duclos calls for ‘joint effort’
Ottawa will release a preliminary report this fall on a national housing strategy, the federal minister responsible for housing said Wednesday.
But Jean-Yves Duclos said that because each market is different, the federal government would need the provinces, municipalities, industry and citizens to chime in on how Ottawa can help. That responsibility, Duclos said, falls on local authorities.
“It will have to be a joint effort,” he said. “Policies from Ottawa are national policies. They work, and they can be helpful, but they need to be complemented by local policies … to address the most specific housing needs of certain communities. And Vancouver is certainly one of those communities.”
Duclos has spent the past few days in Vancouver, consulting with various groups on the national housing policy.
At a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade meeting on Wednesday, he said initial findings will be released on Nov. 22.
He said the federal Liberals have committed $2.3 billion over two years for affordable housing (which included a doubling of Ottawa’s funding support to B.C.) and $2.5 billion in loans for housing providers in the early stages of developing low-cost housing.
A challenge, however, is the data available on housing markets such as Vancouver, Duclos said. He described it as “unsatisfactory” and has asked the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. to gather new figures.
Citizens can offer opinions to Ottawa at letstalkhousing.ca, where more than 3,000 completed surveys have already been received.
Rich Coleman, B.C.’s minister for housing, said in an open letter to Duclos that the province welcomes Ottawa’s re-engagement on housing, pledging to work closely with federal agencies on providing the necessary data.
But Coleman added that it is crucial that Ottawa puts up more money, noting that the province has spent $4.8 billion on lowincome housing since 2001. The private sector, Coleman said, also needs to be coaxed to contribute.
“As a first step, we encourage your government to restore appropriate tax measures that provide incentives for developers to build more rental housing,” Coleman said in the open letter to Duclos.
“Secondly, to ensure this endeavour is successful, federal land must be allocated in order for more affordable housing units to be built on those properties.”
Coleman also asked the federal government to speed up its audit of potential cases of tax evasion and money laundering in the Vancouver real estate market, something that Duclos agreed on — although both ministers avoided identifying foreign interests as the culprit.
“We are clearly concerned there may be ways Canadians are not treated equally in having access to the housing market,” Duclos said.
“We are also concerned about the possibility that some Canadians are evading taxes, which may have a detrimental impact on the housing market across Canada and, more particularly so, here in the Lower Mainland.
He added, however, that the most important factor — the will to carry out a cohesive housing plan — appears to be in place in the Lower Mainland.
“I’ve had the opportunity in the last few days, since I’ve been here in Vancouver, to see how ready the community is at working with the federal government’s re-engagement on the housing issue here in the Vancouver region,” he said. “The community is ready. The province is ready. The City of Vancouver is ready … the objective is now to see exactly how to collaborate.”