QUESTION PERIOD — Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Affordable Housing
May 8, 2024
Leader, La Presse recently reported that five families of asylum seekers from India, 16 people in total, are sharing one apartment in your hometown of Montreal, as they are unable to find affordable rental housing. One couple said they pay $900 a month for a room in the apartment. A recent report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, said the rental market in Montreal remains under pressure this year, with the vacancy rate close to 1%. In my province of B.C., CMHC expects the cost of rent to increase in Vancouver and Victoria this year, next year and the year after that. The same is true for Montreal.
Leader, what year will the cost of rent go down?
Thank you for your question. That story is a disturbing one for all who read La Presse or wherever it appeared. No family should be limited to or forced to live in quarters that are so tight and small.
The Government of Canada is doing its part to help unlock the construction of new rental properties. Indeed, it’s taking unprecedented steps in that regard, and if my eyes do not betray me, there are serious investments to unlock tens and tens of rental houses — if not more — in the years to come. I cannot give you a date for when market forces will determine that rental prices will come down, but if Canada works with the provinces, municipalities and the private sector to build the units, then we’ll have the solution to the problem.
Leader, despite all the Trudeau government’s recent housing announcements, CMHC’s spring forecast repeats a warning it has given previously. This year, rents will rise and vacancy rates will fall across Canada. That is terrible news for Canadians as rent has already doubled under the Trudeau government. Why should renters across Canada believe the Trudeau government can fix this housing crisis it created?
The government did not create the rental crisis, nor can the federal government alone fix it. Let’s be real. But what the federal government can do through its spending power is work with the provinces, which have jurisdiction over housing; and the provinces in turn with the municipalities, which have jurisdiction over zoning; and with the private sector, which plays a major role in this area. If we work together, we can address this problem in a serious way.
