(Ottawa) Now is not the time to launch attacks from both sides on the housing issue, according to Yves-François Blanchet. The leader of the Bloc Québécois invited his political opponents to stop pointing fingers at cities. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threw the ball to them the day before to explain the slowness in deploying a fund to accelerate the construction of new units.
“It has already been several months since Pierre Poilievre literally attacked the heaviness of municipalities,” he recalled. I found it to be an insult to the level of government which is closest to the real population, and there, I saw the Prime Minister of Canada taking the same train. »
He added to trust the municipalities because “they are the ones who, on a daily basis, must manage housing issues” and homelessness.
The number of homeless people has increased by 44% in Quebec since April 2018. There were 10,000 during the last count carried out in October 2022. The phenomenon has grown in several regions of Quebec, previously little affected. Evictions of tenants are the main cause.
The Union of Municipalities of Quebec will also hold a summit on homelessness on Friday.
The housing shortage has worsened in Quebec in one year, according to a report released the day before by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This estimates that 3.5 million additional housing units across the country are needed to keep rents affordable.
When asked Wednesday why the federal government took six months between announcing the new Housing Acceleration Fund in March and reaching a first agreement with the City of London, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threw the ball into the municipalities’ court.
“We should ask the different mayors why it took so long,” he replied.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also suggested in June tackling the “bureaucracies that prevent the construction” of new housing. It would cut federal funding for infrastructure for municipalities that fail to increase the number of building permits by 15% per year. Cities that exceed this goal would get more funding.
“When there is an emergency situation, the last thing you are supposed to do is to put three levels of government around the table and say: pull yourself together,” said Yves-François Blanchet which relies on the sense of responsibility of the Bloc Québécois for the resumption of parliamentary work on Monday.
He believes that the attacks are not welcome in a glaring issue like that of housing. “Can we abstain from this so that people both in Canada and in Quebec understand that we are going to lower our tone, that we are going to approach serious subjects in a serious and, I want to say, responsible manner ? »
This issue, like that of the cost of living, will be one of his party’s priorities this fall. The Bloc Québécois will also focus on the fight and adaptation to climate change, and immigration.
With Mélanie Marquis and Joël-Denis Bellavance