We are living through a historic housing crisis that requires concrete and immediate action.
We are headed for the steepest decline in residential housing starts1 since 1995, when one of the ways to sustainably reduce overheating in real estate is to increase supply. We all need to work together. More than ever, we must insist on resolute and concerted action in the face of the housing crisis.
Quebec faces the lowest vacancy rate recorded in more than 20 years2. It stands at 1.7% in Quebec, a troubling low since a balanced market is around 3%, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
To regain this balance and face the demographic challenges, 100,000 housing units must be delivered in the short term in Quebec, according to the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec (APCHQ), and 620 000 by 2030, according to CMHC.
Everyone agrees that the housing shortage is responsible for the soaring price of rental housing and the difficulty of accessing property. According to the RBC Royal Bank Affordability Index, the proportion of median pre-tax income that a household must spend on mortgage payments, property taxes and utilities is at a more than 30-year high. And according to Scotiabank, housing affordability is being challenged across the country, both for homeownership and for renter households, 10% of whom are in core housing need. In addition, the homeownership rate fell for the first time since these data were compiled, particularly among young households.
Over the past few months, we have all transmitted to the various levels of government our findings concerning the scope of the crisis and the cross-cutting nature of its causes.
The financing of social housing, assistance for affordable non-profit or sustainable housing, the adoption of measures promoting the ability to find housing without public assistance, including taking into account the growth in construction costs and the effect the slowdown in supply due to financing costs following the pandemic, the great need to carry out infrastructure works allowing residential development in the context of the climate crisis, the protection and renovation of the current rental stock, the implementation of municipal regulations encouraging investments in residential real estate, these are all issues to which we must provide answers.
Bring decision makers together
To reduce the impact on Quebec households, we have all recommended various measures and possible solutions to the Quebec government. That said, in the face of the many causes which accentuate the effects of the crisis day by day, we join our voices in demanding that all the decision-makers be brought together so that they first take full measure of the seriousness of the situation, jointly identify the brakes and adopt a common roadmap incorporating concerted actions with targets and a timetable to be respected.
Hurry up. Many households will be left homeless. Young people will have to give up their study plans in our CEGEPs and universities because they cannot find affordable housing in the student cities of Quebec. Companies will see their growth slowed down.
We know that the CAQ government and the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, are sensitive to all these issues. We work closely with the latter and wish to participate in the drafting of the action plan. However, this is not just a housing crisis.
Housing is an issue that also concerns infrastructure, transportation, the economy, health, immigration, seniors, homelessness, and therefore calls for a cross-cutting approach from your government, its various departments, but also other actors.
We therefore ask the Prime Minister to quickly coordinate a concerted national approach aimed at resolving the crisis with all the players concerned, outside their usual silos.
The concerted approach used within the framework of the GALOPH project, the Acceleration Group for the optimization of the Hippodrome project, seems to us to be a step in the right direction. This approach should, in our opinion, be the same to achieve an inventory and a common vision to counter the crisis.
Today, circles that historically spoke little to each other are now united behind this social, economic, but above all, human issue. We hope and urge that decision-makers at all levels of government take the same approach to tackling the housing challenge together.
* Co-signers of the letter, the housing industry, employers, social groups and cities: Sébastien Parent-Durand, General Manager of the Alliance of Affordable Housing Corporations in Greater Montreal (ACHAT) ; Jean-François Arbour, engineer, president of the Association de la construction du Québec (ACQ); Maxime Rodrigue, President and CEO of the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec (APCHQ); Claude Pinard, President and CEO of Centraide of Greater Montreal; Karl Blackburn, President and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec; Benoit Sainte-Marie, General Manager of the Corporation of Property Owners of Quebec (CORPIQ); Charles Milliard, President and CEO of the Federation of Quebec Chambers of Commerce (FCCQ); Patrick Préville, General Manager of the Federation of Cooperative Housing of Quebec (FHCQ); François Vincent, Quebec vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB); Véronique Proulx, President and CEO of Manufacturers and Exporters of Quebec (MEQ); Marc Fortin, President and CEO of the Quebec Regrouping of Residences for Seniors (RQRA); Laurent Lévesque, co-founder and general manager of the work unit for the establishment of student housing (UTILE); France Bélisle, Mayor of Gatineau; Stéphane Boyer, Mayor of Laval; Catherine Fournier, Mayor of Longueuil; Benoît Dorais, vice-president of the executive committee, responsible for housing, real estate strategy, legal affairs and strategic projects and mayor of the borough of Sud-Ouest de Montréal; Bruno Marchand, Mayor of Quebec; Guy Caron, Mayor of Rimouski; Daniel Cournoyer, Acting Mayor of Trois-Rivières; Christian Savard, general manager of Vivre en ville