In Montreal, in October 1945, major public works were launched. To some, the speed of their execution seems like haste. Everything always seems to happen too quickly to those who confuse inaction with reflection.
Winter was approaching. Time was running out. It involved building rows of prefabricated houses. Nothing to do with traditional houses. There was from the outset a cultural conflict rearing its head.
Some of these houses will be assembled in less than a week. In two years, Wartime Housing Limited, a state-owned company, succeeded in building several hundred of these small residences. They still exist and now sell, like everything else, at very high prices.
In 1945, the need for low-income housing was dire. Instead of focusing on public construction of affordable housing, the state continued to encourage private enterprise and the dream of homeownership. We thought this would solve a problem that had been getting worse for years.
The population was hitting rock bottom. Everything could have been better with a little planning in advance. But it would have been even worse if nothing had been done.
Returning from the front, the soldiers made the situation worse. They had little place to bury themselves, even though the speeches continually celebrated their sacrifices.
The citizens were left to their own devices. They were advised to pray, to hope for a miracle. Today that the image of God has completely dissipated, to which saint should we devote ourselves when such a situation arises? Knowing the past, nothing allows us to consider that the future has a predictive character. However, time passes and sometimes problems remain…
Do you remember, during the pandemic, the wreaths thrown to our good “guardian angels”, these “essential” workers? However, the simple idea of paying them better now arouses looks of revulsion among the eternal defenders of the status quo.
Central banks have, once again, raised the key rate. For what ? For who ? The sacrosanct macroeconomic indicators are now telling us of a clear slowdown. That’s what was wanted, isn’t it? Net result: employees pay more for their mortgage, the price of food hardly drops and finding a roof over their head is a miracle or over-indebtedness. And meanwhile, stock marketers smile: the value of loans and bonds is protected. Real estate continues to rise. Once again, the state rushed to help those who already had bellies full.
In France, in the United States, almost everywhere, tiny houses have started to be built. Well insulated, with a shed planted next to it, they were built quickly on public land. Modular, they can be moved. Should Quebec society look in this direction before everything explodes? Should we turn up our noses in the name of beauty codes?
From Val-d’Or to Gaspé, from Gatineau to Sherbrooke, there is a severe shortage of housing. Not to mention the worrying conditions of promiscuity which prevail, due to lack of housing, in the Quebec Arctic.
These are not immigrants who are looking for housing in these different places. However, some would have us believe that it is they who, everywhere, are responsible for our poor housing planning. When the wise man points to the moon, says the proverb, the fool looks at the finger.
A social war is knocking on our doors. There is a lack of roofs. The world below, the one that already has its feet in the water, is asked to bail again.
There is no question for the Legault government of simply increasing the salaries of the ordinary world. All these people shouting under their window are made up of a majority of women. They are the ones who support schools, hospitals and social services. In 2012, François Legault argued that “girls give less importance to salary than boys”. Does he still believe it?
François Legault’s alter ego in politics is not Geneviève Guilbault, the deputy prime minister. Rather, his name is Martin Koskinen. He’s his chief of staff. His salary just increased by $71,000. An increase of 31%. Not to mention his spending allowance. “When people go to see Martin, they know that it’s as if they had come to see me,” the Prime Minister has already explained. In other words, it is not to him that we should talk about the future of this half-country sent to a siding, as with the Quebec tramway.
When public transportation services in the largest cities lack money due to chronic underfunding, the Deputy Prime Minister says that it is not up to the State to provide. When, on the other hand, the State coughs up billions for the automobile industry, the refrain is different. In other words, individual transport is seen as an investment; public transportation, as an expense. In fact, everything collective appears suspect. In the midst of a hospital staff strike, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, said this: “My solution and one of our solutions is really our private clinics. Our private clinics are not on strike. » It does not occur to him for a moment that this paralysis is due to the fact that the State has abandoned its primary role.
I come back to the housing crisis. In his “economic update”, the Minister of Figures, Eric Girard, promises 8,000 more affordable housing units within five years. They are in addition to the 15,000 housing units already announced which are struggling to be completed. In 2022, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimated that more than 620,000 housing units would need to be built to make affordability possible again. Not to mention the urgent renovations necessary for a portion of the real estate stock.
Are tiny houses, like those we see growing abroad, a solution to put into action?