Big city mayors to demand cash for social housing
Canada’s big city mayors to meet in Ottawa Friday where they’re expected to push for urgent funding to repair social housing.

thestar.com
By Jennifer Pagliaro
Jan. 20, 2017

The country’s big city mayors, including John Tory, are demanding cash now to protect crumbling social housing as their most pressing priority as they meet in Ottawa Friday.

As the Big City Mayors’ Caucus convenes at the Chateau Laurier next to Parliament Hill, the group is expected to share concerns with federal officials that anything but an immediate cash commitment will put vital housing stock for cities’ most vulnerable populations in jeopardy, according to a briefing note from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities provided to bureaucratic and political staff across the country and obtained by the Star.

“Around the cabinet table, there is significant pressure to bring forward innovative solutions for the next generation of affordable and social housing at the risk of bypassing the current crisis facing existing housing stock,” the briefing note says.

Though the federal government has been pushing ahead with plans for a national housing strategy and other ways to address the need for affordable housing, budget submissions from FCM published earlier this week made clear saving social housing units is a top priority.

“Otherwise, as federal operating funding declines each year toward zero, vulnerable Canadians will be at risk, with effects reverberating throughout the housing sector,” the report reads.

The Star earlier reported that 425 Toronto Community Housing units - the largest social housing provider in Canada - will close in 2017 unless additional funds can be secured. CEO Greg Spearn said they will be on track to close a unit per day in 2018 without commitments from the federal and provincial governments.

There are currently more than 177,000 people on the waitlist in Toronto for subsidized housing.

After the city spent nearly $1 billion on a 10-year, $2.6 billion capital repairs plan for TCH, neither the federal or provincial governments have yet to commit to long-term funding.

The Big City Mayors’ Caucus plans to press their federal counterparts to commit to 50 per cent cost-sharing of the next phase of promised infrastructure funding, which is expected to be applicable to housing needs.

Of the $20 billion available as part of the next phase of promised funding, the mayors are also requesting $12.6 billion be set aside specifically for housing - what is “essential to tackling the housing crisis and improving the lives of Canadians,” according to the briefing note.

“Budget 2017 is the opportunity - historic yet fleeting - to secure long-term investment on the scale needed to tackle this crisis. This will require a bold decision to dedicate much of the Phase 2 Social Infrastructure Fund to housing,” the FCM report reads.

Though city officials working on the housing file have been cautiously optimistic about the pending federal investment promised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, there has yet to be any indication the province will contribute housing funding after years of downloading that responsibility onto cities.

The Big City Mayors’ Caucus includes mayors from large municipalities across the country, including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Brampton, Ottawa, Mississauga and Hamilton, among others.