(Quebec) Conversion of government and commercial buildings, debureaucratization of ineffective municipal programs and ban on Airbnb-type rentals in cities where there is a housing crisis, the Parti Québécois will discuss housing during its national council.
“Quebec has become the dunce of housing starts in Canada. We want to discuss together on solutions to stimulate the housing supply,” said the main spokesperson for the Parti Québécois, Méganne Perry Mélançon, in an interview with The Press.
She must also make a presentation to activists, where she will report on a six-week tour, during which she met more than a hundred local stakeholders in 12 regions of Quebec.
And they, in return, will consider Saturday and Sunday in Drummondville on around thirty proposals to tackle the housing crisis.
Among these, “transform and sell government buildings vacant since the pandemic into new housing” and “offer incentives to businesses to encourage the conversion of vacant office spaces into housing and work with municipalities to facilitate change zoning from commercial to residential.
Mme Perry Mélançon believes that this would be a way of creating housing within the current urban perimeter of cities.
Bureaucratic barriers
And to build faster, activists will look into a proposal aimed at “launching a vast operation to eliminate bureaucratic barriers and debureaucratize ineffective programs”. The government of Quebec is targeted by this proposal, as are the mayors. A PQ government would ask municipalities to “review each program with the objective of reducing unnecessary paperwork and reducing delays.”
Without taking a position, the PQ spokesperson also wonders whether the urban perimeter of certain cities should not be enlarged. “It is still not always feasible, the square of sand in which municipalities can develop. In Gaspésie, we are often organized along the 132, by the sea. For a municipality like Rimouski, I am told that the perimeter is quite at its full potential,” she lets slip.
Activists will also look at a proposal aimed at encouraging urban densification near public transport networks.
Elders
In terms of tenant protection, they will look into the advisability of establishing “a public, universal and mandatory rent register, powered by administrative data, to guarantee transparency and prevent abusive increases”.
Party activists will also study a proposal to “extend protection against evictions to seniors aged 65 and over whose income is below the income ceiling determining core need”.
This question is also being debated in the National Assembly, while the Legault government has called for a Québec solidaire bill which proposes to expand the “Françoise David” law, adopted in 2016. Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon had described the affair as a “play”, since he did not believe that this bill resulting from a round of negotiations between the CAQ and QS would lead to concrete public policies.
However, after dismissing it, Prime Minister François Legault said he was “open” to taking action at the start of the week. For Méganne Perry Mélançon, this is excellent news. “All the opposition parties want it,” she said.