The Honourable Joe Fontana,
Minister of Labour and Housing
House of Commons, Ottawa K1A 0A6

Dear Minister,

I am writing regarding your letter dated May 18, 2005 to housing and homelessness partners, concerning budget allocations for new housing initiatives in the proposed budget.

I would like to clarify the following paragraph:

“Our original commitment was to invest $1.5 billion over the next five years towards new housing initiatives. The commitment has now been accelerated to two years, and given the agreement with the New Democratic Party, we now have an additional $100 million for housing, bringing it to a total of $1.6 billion.”

While in the last federal election your party committed $1.5 billion for new housing initiatives, this did not translate into any new funds or line items in the February 2005 Budget. The NDP and many housing and homelessness groups lobbied you to follow through on this promise and we were disappointed with this initial budget because it failed to honour the $1.5 billion promise.

It was only after negotiations with the NDP that the $1.6 billion commitment for housing became a reality. As you are well aware the revised Budget, currently Bill C-48, contains $1.6 billion for new housing initiatives. In short, if it had not been for the NDP the commitment to housing would have been left as another Liberal broken promise. The NDP is committed to making Parliament work as Canadians expect. This budget is both fiscally responsible and gets something done for people and the environment.

Your letter is not written in the spirit of the constructive and productive relationship we have build through the budget negotiations process. Instead, it misrepresents the facts and does no-one a service. Now, let’s get back to the real work of building affordable housing across Canada.

I look forward to your response on this important matter.

Sincerely,
Libby Davies, MP (Vancouver-East)
NDP House Leader and Critic for Housing and Homelessness

CEP 232

LD/ew

The Honourable Joe Fontana,
Minister of Labour and Housing
House of Commons, Ottawa
Dear Minister,

I was most pleased to meet with you on October 8, to discuss housing issues and concerns and congratulate you on your new appointment.

I believe it’s beneficial that Homelessness, Housing and the CMHC are now under one roof, so to speak, and that the continuum of housing issues is not fragmented with different Ministers and Departments.

I briefly wanted to reiterate the issues I raised:

1) A stronger financial commitment from the federal government in the next budget for a National Housing Strategy.

2) A greater emphasis on delivery of not-for-profit social housing targets, not simply broadly defined “affordable” housing. This would help ensure that housing needs are addressed for those in core need. There also needs to be much greater accountability from provinces with the allocation of federal funds to prevent diversion or stockpiling.

3) Continue productive ongoing discussions with the City of Vancouver about the Woodwards project. The City has taken very important steps to make this project a reality. I believe the province has approved 100 social housing units as part of the development. I am urge the federal government to designate federal funds into this very significant development, to ensure a further 100 units are allocated for social housing.

4) The need to reverse the trend of diminishing subsidies from CMHC on section 95.1 co-ops. We need to ensure that co-ops remain as mixed income buildings, accessible to low-income households.

In addition we discussed the issue of the reinvestment of CMHC profits, as you are aware, currently profits generated by the CMHC are folded into general revenues. I believe strongly that these funds should be reinvested into funding much needed social housing initiatives.

In closing, I would like to reiterate a request made in an earlier letter dated August 27. I urge you to direct CHMC to release the Annual Statement of Expenditures and Annual Performance Reports, as required under the bilateral housing deals. This would allow for a clear assessment of how affective the Affordable Housing Framework Agreement has been and let it be known how much remains uncommitted of the $1 billion promised.

I certainly appreciate your openness and willingness to meet, and support your idea that we should plan for future meetings. I would be interested, as you suggested, in participating in your discussions around housing and homelessness issues, including Aboriginal Housing.

I look forward to working with you on these important issues.

Sincerely,
Libby Davies, MP (Vancouver-East)
NDP Critic for Housing and Homelessness