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Hill Times: Why Canada must protect the existing affordable housing stock

OPINION | BY NDP MP JENNY KWAN | January 31, 2024
 
Affordable housing across Canada is being lost at a seriously alarming rate; not to alien abduction, as the leader of the official opposition sarcastically wondered, but to housing profiteers who care most about their bottom line. These investor-landlords are looking to maximize their profits by buying older rental apartments and often displacing long-time tenants by renovicting or demo-evicting them to jack up rents.

Housing expert Steve Pomeroy has said that Canada lost more than 550,000 units of affordable housing between 2011 and 2021, which represents a loss of 11 units for each new affordable housing unit built. In cities like Vancouver and Toronto, the rate is even more drastic. Worse yet, Winnipeg and Hamilton, Ont., are losing 29 units of affordable housing for each new one. When Stephen Harper’s Conservatives were in power (with Pierre Poilievre at the table), 800,000 affordable homes were lost as corporate landlords bought in bulk while renovicting or demo-evicting low-income tenants, and the Affordable Housing Initiative was axed. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have lost another 276,000 affordable homes to developers.

Why Canada must protect the existing affordable housing stock

Canada has among the lowest community housing stock of all G7 countries, yet the Liberals’ National Housing Strategy aims to create a mere 5,000 community housing units per year.
OPINION | BY NDP MP JENNY KWAN | January 31, 2024

 

For more than three decades, successive Liberal and Conservative governments relied primarily on the private market to provide housing that people in the community need. This colossal failure has led us to Canada’s current housing crisis.  

Right now, Canada has among the lowest community housing stock of all G7 countries, yet the Liberals’ National Housing Strategy aims to create a mere 5,000 community housing units per year. This woefully inadequate target is completely out of touch with reality and crushes any possibility of meaningfully addressing the housing crisis. 

Meanwhile, a broad spectrum of voices has come together to call on the Liberals to at least double Canada’s community housing stock. One key initiative that the Liberals must act on is to invest in a national acquisition program that would increase community housing while protecting the vanishing affordable rental supply. The federal housing advocate, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, national housing groups, and even the House Human Resources, Skills, and Social Development Committee have been calling for a non-profit acquisition fund as a key strategy.

As people get priced out of the market, homeless encampments grow across the country, and shelters are beyond capacity. Urgent action is needed now more than ever.   

Communities from coast to coast to coast are desperate for real leadership. The Liberals can start with enhancing effective existing programs by investing annually in the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), injecting resources for grants to the co-investment program, and refocusing their housing strategy with real affordability as a must.

The creation of an acquisition fund that gives land trusts, co-operatives, and non-profit housing providers the financial backing they need to compete in the private market is equally urgent. The fact that the 2023 fall economic statement failed to acknowledge this—despite the NDP’s call to action—reflects how out of touch the Liberals are.

Make no mistake: an acquisition program will prevent predatory investors and corporate landlords from intensifying homelessness through displacing people to maximize profit. To protect existing low-cost housing is to protect inclusivity, equity, and justice in our communities. 

Numerous other countries, as well as Canadian cities and provinces, have already created acquisition programs to preserve existing affordable housing and keep rents low. The Liberals should support and incentivize the provinces and territories with matching funds.

It is time for the Liberals to implement the NDP’s proposal for a non-profit acquisition fund, make the RHI a long-term annual program, commit to at least doubling Canada’s community housing stock, and put affordability front and centre.

Beyond good social policy, investing in affordable housing is not just a responsible economic policy, but a necessary one. A report from last November entitled The Impact of Community Housing on Productivity finds that increasing the community housing stock by just 1.5 per cent would contribute as much as an additional $136-billion to Canada’s GDP. The Bank of Canada governor has also said investing directly in housing is not only anti-inflationary spending, but could also even lower inflation.

Canadians need the federal government to: a) ensure housing is treated as a basic human right and not a commodity; b) stop the loss of existing affordable housing; c) invest in the development of new community housing; and d) protect renters from reno/demo-evictions and out-of-control rent hikes.

Jenny Kwan is the Member of Parliament for Vancouver East, B.C., and the NDP critic for housing and immigration.

 

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How your data determines what you pay!
What if the price you pay at the store is different than the person standing next to you?

Corporations can use personal data such as location, device type, browsing history, purchase behavior, login status, and loyalty cards/programs to profile consumers and determine what different people are charged for the same goods and services.

How can we stop this from happening in Canada?

Join MP Jenny Kwan, Patrick Johnson - President of UFCW 1518, Jim Stanford - Economist and Director of Centre for Future Work, and other experts, for a public forum and community conversation about what surveillance pricing means for consumers and workers, how technology and personal data are changing the way prices are set, and what everyday people can do to fight back.

*Scan QR code, click the image or this link to register your attendance - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/your-data-their-price-a-town-hall-on-surveillance-pricing-tickets-1998495899032

CBC News: Demand for Canadian citizenship certificates soaring, fuelled by Americans

CBC News: Demand for Canadian citizenship certificates soaring, fuelled by Americans

Applications from people around the world seeking Canadian citizenship certificates have been rising rapidly in recent months, fuelled by thousands of applications from the United States, CBC News has learned.

The number of people who have already received certificates as a result of Parliament’s adoption of “Lost Canadian” legislation late last year rose nearly 50 per cent between April 1 and May 31, according to new data obtained by CBC. 

Bill C-3 allows citizenship for those who can prove they're descended from a Canadian ancestor, even if that ancestor left the country several generations back. It was adopted after the courts ruled that limiting citizenship to the first generation born outside of Canada was too restrictive. 

Between mid-December — when Bill C-3 went into effect — and May 31, some 6,100 citizenship certificates were granted by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to those who now qualify.

That is up from 4,075 certificates issued as a result of Bill C-3 from mid-December until March 31.

Another 17,390 people have received certificates as a result of having a Canadian parent. Prior to the bill's adoption, those who were born outside Canada had to have a Canadian parent to qualify for citizenship.

In June, IRCC suddenly suspended an estimated 100 certificates that had already been issued after flagging problems with the documents submitted with the applications. The concern from archivists is that some people who've already applied to IRCC will be sent back to archives to find more genealogical records.

The IRCC says 83 of the suspensions have been resolved and the certificates restored. It has sent procedural fairness letters to another 17 people whose certificates were suspended and given them 60 days to submit the documents necessary to prove their Canadian ancestry. 

If they fail to provide acceptable proof, their citizenship certificates could be revoked.

New Democrat immigration critic Jenny Kwan said she has been getting letters and inquiries from people affected by the suspension letters and has written to Metlege Diab, calling for answers.

“It really makes no sense whatsoever, what’s going on," Kwan said. "And the minister is completely ignoring that reality right now.”

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-certificates-americans-9.7307536

National Post: House public safety committee votes to investigate vetting of accused NATO spy

National Post: House public safety committee votes to investigate vetting of accused NATO spy

OTTAWA — The House of Commons public safety committee has voted unanimously to investigate Canada’s security screening processes, after a Canadian woman was arrested in Belgium for allegedly spying on NATO.

The committee adopted a special, out-of-session motion on Monday to probe the vetting of Biwei “Claire” Zhang by Canadian security officials before the start of an internship last summer at NATO’s central military headquarters in Belgium.

On July 25, Belgian authorities announced they’d arrested a “Canadian national of Chinese origin” on suspicion of spying for a third country while interning at the NATO headquarters. Subsequent reporting identified the suspect as Zhang, a computer science and systems engineering graduate in her early 30s who’d previously held positions at multiple Canadian federal agencies.

Zhang’s security clearance for the overseas NATO internship was approved by the Canadian government after she was vetted by CSIS.

The NDP does not have any seats on the public safety committee, or any House committee, but NDP public safety critic Jenny Kwan said she supported the investigation.

”The government needs to conduct a comprehensive review of how this individual was vetted and cleared for a sensitive NATO posting, including the role played by Global Affairs Canada, CSIS and the RCMP,” said Kwan in an email.

Kwan also it was important to ensure that candidate screening remain “evidence based” and “(does) not become a vehicle for racial or ethnic profiling.”

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/house-public-safety-committee-special-meeting-accused-nato-spy

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