Zainab Al-Mehdar
Gatineau Jan. 14, 2023
To create a dialogue around housing the NDP Pontiac riding association hosted a round table and invited members of parliament, activists and experts on the matter to discuss the issue.
On Jan. 14 the “What’s up with Housing?” event was held at the Université du Québec.
The panelists included Céline Brault, Chelsea community activist and volunteer with the Chelsea Housing Corporation, a non-profit community group, Daniel Blaikie, NDP MP from Winnipeg, Latonya Ludford, an expert on urbanism and housing, and Raphaël Déry, a lawyer working with cooperative housing.
Catherine Emond, NDP Pontiac Riding Association president explained that the event was organized to give people a chance to come together and share their experiences with the housing crisis and hear what solutions they want to see enacted by the government.
“The housing crisis in Canada desperately needs solutions which thus far are not reaching the people who need them most,” she said.
Some of the solutions that were discussed look at approaching housing from a human rights perspective, this was mentioned by Ludford who also said that this approach should be done on a municipal level. The issue with housing is that it’s a market-based approach and one that is not concerned with lower-income families or seniors, explained Blaikie. Emond added that the government has an obligation and a responsibility to provide affordable housing to Canadians.
Carl Hager, an executive member of the riding association, recalled one of the solutions he found interesting was one that gives municipalities more control in the building process. One that requires builders to be more involved in the community and do good when getting permits to build in a certain area.
He mentioned that for him these conversations are important because there is very little being done about the housing crisis. “The problem is that housing has been neglected by federal policy for over a decade,” he said.
As a result of the event, the riding association plans on doing a letter campaign that attendants can sign and send to their MPs highlighting key points they want the government to be aware of.
“The big message will be that the Canadian government must adopt a policy of a non-market approach to housing. And that right now we’re leaving so many people behind and the problem is that the Liberal government is only tinkering on the edges of the problem. In Canada, we are losing 15 affordable housing units for every new one created. So it’s important to tell MPs that the market approach to housing is not working for Canadians,” said Emond.
One of the stories that stood out was the housing project in Chelsea. Brault spoke on the topic and explained how she has been involved in trying to build a 12-unit residence for seniors and it’s taken 12 years to do so. The hurdles she encountered along the way, included slow government response, increasing costs, constant new regulations and building code updates.
“I think that it’s a problem when we’re only relying on volunteer organizations to get affordable housing built. It should be different levels of government that are taking responsibility for themselves to get those units built by doing an evaluation of the needs and the community and providing housing, it’s as simple as that,” she said.
When asked why some of their events do not happen in the Pontiac but rather in Gatineau, Emond said it is something they hope to explore in the future. Moving forward Emond and their riding association hope to host more events to talk to community members about issues that are of concern to them.
