(Ottawa) Quebec has so far received only a fraction of the billions allocated by the Trudeau government in affordable housing programs, we learn in a compilation carried out by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation ( CMHC). “A great injustice,” denounces the Bloc Québécois.
“What we feared is emerging, that is to say a great inequity for Quebec,” notes with regret the Bloc member, Gabriel Ste-Marie, in an interview. He had requested a breakdown by province of the housing programs managed by the organization.
Quebec received 14% of the allocated funds, which is below its demographic weight in the country which is close to 23%. This is a little more than 4 billion out of the 29 billion aimed at financing the construction of new housing. While it receives a share roughly equivalent to its population proportion in most programs, two of them bring the average down: the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) and the Home Construction Loan Program. apartments (PPCA).
Quebec only obtained 6% of the FLA sum, or approximately 465 million out of 7.5 billion. This money was used to finance more than 10,000 units. By comparison, Ontario got more than half of the fund with $4.1 billion.
In the case of the PPCA, Quebec’s share is 15%. 2.7 billion were allocated for the construction of more than 8,000 units out of the 17.6 billion. Ontario and British Columbia got $7.7 billion and $6 billion, respectively.
The gap between the provinces is explained by the fact that these programs are based on demand and therefore projects submitted by developers, indicated the Minister of Housing, Sean Fraser, in an interview.
The Bloc Québécois fears that this injustice will be repeated with the rain of billions announced for housing as part of the striptease government budget. The next budget which will be tabled on Tuesday includes 6 billion for a new fund which will be used to finance infrastructure necessary for housing such as sewers. It also provides an additional 400 million for the Fund to accelerate housing construction.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc MP
What we are asking is to use the model of the initiative for the rapid creation of housing, the ICRL, to let Quebec choose, that way we are sure that we will not be tricked into flour, that we will have our share, that it will be fair.
Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc MP
The new Building in Canada program, also recently announced, will make it possible to conclude an agreement with Quebec, recalls the Minister of Housing, Sean Fraser. “This is a new approach that will allow us to treat [cet enjeu] bilaterally, where previously it was based on application requests and developers. »
The fact remains that this program, modeled on an existing program in British Columbia, imposes conditions on the provinces such as reducing the approval time for projects and building housing on government-owned or vacant land.