Tab A: Opening Remarks
Tab A: Opening Remarks
Opening remarks for the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
at the HUMA Committee
Ottawa, ON
September 27, 2023
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Thank you for welcoming me today.
I'd like to start by thanking this committee for its report and recommendations regarding the National Housing Strategy. Your diligence and hard work are greatly appreciated.
I'm pleased to say that most of the Committee's recommendations have already been addressed. For example, Infrastructure Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) have already strengthened their partnership – and we are now taking a whole-of-government approach to housing and homelessness. We're currently addressing the other recommendations, as part of our continuous efforts to work with stakeholders to improve the National Housing Strategy (NHS). All of the NHS programs have clear targets and goals and we monitor them and report on them regularly.
Over its ten-year duration, the NHS will have invested more than $82 billion in loans and contributions. It will have built or repaired hundreds of thousands of homes – and have provided direct relief to thousands more low-income households.
But since the NHS was launched in 2017, the housing environment has changed drastically. Canada is now clearly in a housing crisis. A severe housing shortage, high inflation and rising interest rates have created a situation where middle-class Canadians are struggling to pay their rents and mortgages. Workers can no longer afford to live in our cities. Young people are giving up on the dream of ever owning their own home. And our most vulnerable neighbours are left struggling to keep a roof over their heads.
We can, and will, continue to improve the tools within the NHS. That's why we launched the Housing Accelerator Fund, to help cities get more homes built more quickly.
But we realize we need to do more. We need bold actions that can be implemented now. Just two weeks ago we announced the new GST exemption for the building of purpose-built rental homes. This will help make the math work for developers now, incentivizing them to build rental homes, rather than luxury condos.
Still, there's still much more to do. I've had the pleasure to be in this role for about two months, and in that time I have had many fruitful conversations with stakeholders across the country. Here's my vision of where I think we now need to focus:
First – we need to urgently address the emergencies. We need to focus on housing the growing numbers of people experiencing homelessness in our cities – refugees, asylum seekers, people living in encampments.
Secondly, we need to tackle our severe housing shortage, from every possible angle. By now, you'll have heard the CMHC estimates. Canada needs a staggering 3.5 million more homes, above and beyond what we're already on track to build, in order to reach affordability by 2030.
This call for an all-hands-on-deck approach, with all levels of government, all sectors of society playing a role. The federal government can mobilize this action by offering different financing solutions for developers that make it more viable to build the housing Canadians need. The GST exemption is one more solution – but we still need to look at what else we can do.
We can also support the non-profit housing sector to create more affordable and community housing for low-income families – after decades of neglect before our government stepped back in.
We also need to change the way cities are building housing and hold them accountable to create more supply. The Housing Accelerator Fund is a great step in this direction.
We can also take action to improve productivity and capacity in the construction sector so it can build more homes, more quickly, and more cost-effectively.
The third area of focus is homeownership. We'll continue to help Canadians keep their homes in these tough times, and help young families buy their first home.
Tackling Canada's housing crisis will take a whole-of-government approach and more investment from all levels of government and the private sector. To catalyze this change, we need to continuously update the National Housing Strategy and other federal levers so that they keep pace with Canada's evolving dynamics.
It's an honour to have a role to play. And it will be an honour to work with this committee in the process.
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