“British Columbia cancelled its community housing fund. Many non-profit housing projects were ready to build, but now they do not have the money. I want the federal government to create a special fund to pay for these ready projects so they still get built.”

“Madam Speaker, I am rising today to pursue a question I asked in question period on February 27. It was right after the British Columbia government came out with its budget. I have to say that I think every British Columbia member of Parliament was shocked. The B.C. NDP government cancelled a very important program: the community housing fund. The reason I raise this in the context of our federal Parliament is that obviously the Canadian government is making many commitments to build many Canadian homes. Housing starts are up. This is discussed, of course, in the spring economic update. My concern, though, which was not properly addressed in question period, is that, yes, the federal government is providing funding to the B.C. government, but we have a real opportunity here that I hope the federal Minister of Housing will seize. The last statistic I can find since I asked the question, after the B.C. community housing fund was cancelled, is that the commitment from the federal government, out of the funds approved through Bill C-15, the budget implementation act’s commitment of $15 billion to the Build Canada Homes agency, was that $170 million was to go to B.C. This is the latest statistic I can find of what is committed from the federal government to the B.C. government. To be clear, that is the total, which includes all kinds of housing: market housing, social housing, co-op housing and so on. The opportunity here for the federal government is huge. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars that municipalities, local communities and non-profit associations have already spent in getting ready to build great housing. They have bought the land. They have hired the architects. They have cleared the studies. They have done the zoning. They are ready to roll, and suddenly, the B.C. government’s decision to pull out of the funding has left thousands of potential homes for British Columbians in peril. There are big question marks now over many projects. My plea to the government in pursuing this question tonight in Adjournment Proceedings is this: Set some clear requirements. Parties have the land. They are ready to roll. They have done their zoning. They have their permits. The plans are ready. It is just a question of a top-up from the federal government, specifically designed for non-profit housing in British Columbia. As I mentioned before in my question when I asked it in February, there are projects on Galiano Island and Mayne Island, and also in Saanich. The Prince George council member Cori Ramsay, who is the president of the Union of BC Municipalities, is saying the same thing. So many of these wonderful projects are going to fall through the cracks. We are ready to go. We are looking for the federal government to commit to creating a special funding program, designed for B.C. in this moment and designed to capture those projects that are ready to roll, shovel-ready, but that may fall through the cracks and never get built unless the Minister of Housing, who is a British Columbian, can step up and design a project that gets the money flowing to build these homes for British Columbians.”

“I want the government to fund ready-to-build non-profit housing projects in British Columbia right now. If we do not fund them soon, we will lose the chance to build them quickly.”

“Madam Speaker, I am so sorry. That was my first interaction with the newly elected member for Ajax. I congratulate her on her appointment as the parliamentary secretary. My question in question period, and again tonight, was very specific. There is an opportunity that may disappear, specific to British Columbia and specific to projects that are ready to go. It is an opportunity for the federal government to pick up on a bespoke program, limited in time and designed to capture those projects in B.C. that are ready to roll but may fall through the cracks. While I support the national vision that the hon. parliamentary secretary just described, it does not speak at all, I am sad to say, to the issue I raised at the end of February: the opportunity that is here right now to get non-profit housing built really fast by picking up on the opportunities of ready-to-roll projects that may fall through the cracks before the federal government gets around to trying to rescue them.”