By Nick Murray
At a press convention in Ottawa to announce a brand new deal on housing the homeless between Ottawa and practically a dozen municipalities in Ontario and Saskatchewan, Erskine-Smith mentioned that whereas Ontario has elevated its helps for the homeless, the federal government of Premier Doug Ford has decreased helps for group housing “by roughly the identical quantity.”
“We want group housing if we would like a long-term answer. A shelter mattress simply doesn’t supply the soundness all of us want,” Erskine-Smith mentioned at his first announcement since taking up the housing portfolio final month.
“As we’ve ramped up federal spending on group and social housing, the Ontario authorities has seen match to scale back its personal commitments on this house.”
Erskine-Smith mentioned the province has seen spending on social housing decline by practically 10 per cent, even after factoring in federal commitments.
“Ontario is the one province — the one province — the place duty for social housing has been downloaded to municipalities,” Erskine-Smith continued.
“It doesn’t should be this manner, and admittedly it wasn’t all the time this manner.”
Erskine-Smith’s first announcement was a two-year, $91 million settlement with 9 Ontario municipalities, in addition to Regina and Saskatoon, to help the municipalities’ encampment response plans. The municipalities will match Ottawa’s contributions.
These plans embody creating new shelter areas and rising transitional housing choices.
An analogous deal price $6.4 million was signed with the Metropolis of London in December.
The federal authorities made offers immediately with the municipalities after being unable to return to agreements with the governments of Ontario and Saskatchewan.
Whereas the agreements preceded him, Erskine-Smith mentioned these two provinces weren’t prepared to match the federal government’s contributions.
“I did communicate with the minister in Ontario, and he indicated there was all the time a willingness in reaching a deal, and issues went sideways for one motive or one other,” he mentioned.
“Clearly, timeliness was a consideration right here. When winter’s coming, you gotta ensure you’re delivering all of the helps you want in an actual quick time period. On the finish of the day, we simply wanted to get these offers carried out and so needed to attain on to municipalities.”
Erskine-Smith mentioned offers have been reached with all different provinces and territories, with particulars to be introduced within the coming weeks.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 22, 2025.
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Final modified: January 23, 2025