The Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ), which is facing further delivery delays, is not the only program on which the government relies, argues Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau.
“We have given ourselves the tools to do much more than with a single program,” said the minister on Tuesday in Parliament, in response to questions about the deadlines linked to the PHAQ.
Duty revealed Tuesday that only 6 of the 130 housing units that were to be ready by the end of September under the PHAQ had been delivered. These revelations aroused the ire of oppositions in Parliament.
“In the last budget, the CAQ promised Quebecers to deliver 20,000 PHAQ housing units,” thundered Quebec Solidaire MP Andres Fontecilla during the question period. “At the pace the minister is going, the CAQ will fulfill its promise at the turn of the next millennium! »
Earlier, the interim Liberal leader, Marc Tanguay, said that the government was “not capable of delivering” on housing and that “the minister had spoken through her hat”.
He was referring to the words of Mr.me Duranceau, who said this summer that he expected “a very good number of units to be added to the balance sheet of PHAQ units by the end of the summer”.
“The CAQ made us waste two years,” reacted PQ MP Joël Arseneau about the PHAQ.
Launched two and a half years ago, the PHAQ was created by the CAQ government to accelerate the construction of social housing to replace the Accès Logis program.
More results with tax-advantaged funds
Tuesday, Mme Duranceau tried to be reassuring. “There is no money lying around in the system that is not being used,” she said. “We will deliver the units,” she said before emphasizing that the PHAQ was not the only program at her disposal to build affordable housing. “The PHAQ is one of the programs and we continue to innovate with several partnerships. »
By “partnerships”, the minister is referring to different sectors: tax-advantaged funds, the fast track for developers and the Unitains initiative, in particular
The tax-advantaged funds take the form of agreements with Desjardins, the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Fondaction. Launched in 2022, they made it possible to finance more than 5,000 units, 1,594 of which were delivered according to the dashboard of the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ). The government has also entrusted the creation of 1,000 affordable housing units for seniors to the Unitaînés project proposed by businessman Luc Maurice.
And more recently, Mme Duranceau announced the creation of a new “fast track” allowing it to enter into agreements with large private developers to provide affordable housing. A first agreement with the Angus Development Corporation was reached at the end of August to build a thousand units.