The release of Quebec’s share of the new federal housing fund is compromised by the “constraints” imposed by the Trudeau government on municipalities, according to the Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau.
The minister dropped this information in an exchange with the Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ) in parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
“If you had the details of what other Canadian cities have as constraints, you would better understand Quebec’s position,” said Mr.me Duranceau.
Quebec municipalities are urging Quebec and Ottawa to agree to have access to their share of the $4 billion from the Fund to accelerate housing construction created in 2022 in the last federal budget.
The UMQ, which estimates this envelope at $900 million, deplores the fact that other Canadian cities can already launch projects while Quebec municipalities have not yet been able to submit proposals.
The optimistic federal minister
Questioned on this subject, the federal Minister of Housing, Sean Fraser, was nevertheless optimistic on Tuesday. “I think we’re close [d’une entente]but we have work to finalize,” he said in English.
“We want to ensure that we respect the jurisdiction of Quebec,” he also mentioned, emphasizing that the federal government did not have the right to “interact directly” with Quebec municipalities.
However, the Fund was designed in such a way that each municipality must negotiate directly with Ottawa to get its share.
And conditions apply. The City of Calgary, for example, recently had its funding application denied because it had not yet relaxed a zoning bylaw regarding intensification.
Questioned subsequently, Minister Duranceau did not want to specify what constraints bothered Quebec, contenting herself with emphasizing that her government would not tolerate any conditions attached to federal funding.
Furthermore, Minister Fraser has not confirmed that the amount to which Quebec would be entitled is $900 million. “The exact amount will depend on the number of units that are built,” he said.
The last major negotiation between Quebec and Ottawa on the National Housing Strategy took three years to come to fruition.
Further details will follow.
With the collaboration of Boris Proulx and Alexandre Robillard