Getting to 2030—Examining how Budget 2021 helps Canada achieve its housing goals, and what we need to do from here
Housing is a human right. In Canada, this is enshrined in the National Housing Strategy Act, 2019. To realize this right, we need to pursue systemic solutions that can help ensure that everyone has safe, secure, affordable, and adequate housing.
Maytree convenes the Housing Policy Research Exchange (HPRE)—a group of housing policy experts, researchers, service providers, and municipal and housing umbrella organizations—to discuss emerging topics in housing policy in Canada. The HPRE closely examined the 2021 Federal Budget when it was tabled this spring.
Budget 2021 was a watershed budget, with significant investments in public services that people across Canada need to live life with dignity. The federal government committed over $3.5 billion to housing and homelessness initiatives for the 2021-22 fiscal year. While this level of investment is significantly higher than what might have been invested in previous years, the question remains whether housing investments made in Budget 2021 are significant enough to alleviate the deepening affordable housing crisis in Canada.
On behalf of the HPRE, Maytree developed this submission, which outlines the scale of the housing crisis in Canada and recommends additional supply-side and demand-side policy options that the federal government could consider to help ensure everyone in Canada has a place to call home.