DATE/DATE: December 7th, 2006 – 11:30 a.m.
LOCATION/ENDROIT: Room 130-S, Center Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario
PRINCIPALS/PRINCIPAUX: Jack Layton, leader, New Democratic Party
Tony Martin, MP, New Democratic Party
Irene Mathyssen, MP, New Democratic Party and
Housing critic
Tony Martin: Good morning. I have been traveling the country for the last couple of months, meeting with people and looking at the issue of homelessness and particularly as it manifests itself in homelessness and I have come to the conclusion as have others across the country, leadership across the country, those who work with the poor, that we have a crisis on our hands.
A poll this week out of Vancouver is indicating that homelessness is the number one problem in that city. The latest count has 2,174 people living on the streets including 22 children with their families. Vancouver is losing the struggle with homelessness. I saw it first hand on the street and at poverty forums and it has been spoken about in stories in the national media this week. For example, in the Globe as it talks about the downtown East Side Women Center, 42 homeless, unnerved women seeking a haven, crowded into the drop-in center and sleep on floors, under tables, curled up in chairs without blankets. You can hear them coughing all night because most of the women who have been sleeping in alleys, under bridges, in flop houses or in emergency shelters are sick, gaunt faces, sunken eyes and the hunted look about them.
And in Victoria where I was also, the Globe and the Victoria newspapers this week indicate in alleys, under bridges, in the parks, anonymous lifeless clumps, bundles inside tattered sleeping bags along Government Street, some 700 homeless in a town of 75,000 next to great wealth. Victoria, the Victoria mayor says it is becoming a huge issue for a lot of smaller cities. It is not just a big city problem anymore.
When you go downtown, the homeless seem to be all about you and in Calgary, where I spent an evening in a shelter and walking the streets, 34 homeless people, shelter spaces only for 1,800, some bused to suburban warehouses or sleeping overnight in temporary parked transit buses, four deaths attributed to the homeless housing crisis in the recent deep freeze. Street workers say people taking crystal meth and crack for the illusion of no problems with food, clothing and shelter. Cities like Calgary, because they seem to have no other alternative, although there is alternatives, are now passing law to make it illegal to be poor in those cities. We are doing the same thing in Ottawa and before we – before that becomes an epidemic in itself, we need to be doing something about this in this wonderfully wealthy country called Canada.
I’m pleased to be here today with our housing critic, Irene Mathyssen who has just tabled a bill in the House calling for a housing strategy and our leader, who knows this issue only too well from his time as councillor in Toronto where he actually wrote a book on homelessness. So I will ask Irene now to come up and speak.
Irene Mathyssen: Thank you, Tony. Federal homelessness funding is in limbo. The current program is the last line of defense for people at risk in this country and this vital program is set to end on March 31st 2007. Homelessness advocates and programs rely on this funding to get people off the streets and ensure others do not end up in the same desperate situation.
With only vague promises of funding from the Conservatives, many programs have started to scale back and some are shutting down now, in London, in Toronto. The homelessness crisis is clear now. When funding is gone for federal homelessness programs such as the international award winning Skippy program, the crisis will only intensify. We need to do something now, not in April, when winter is over.
If we dedicate just 1% of Canada’s gross domestic product to eradicating homelessness in this country, we would be able to provide the homes Canadians deserve. I have indeed tabled a private member’s bill that will ensure all Canadians have access to safe, secure, adequate housing that is affordable. A home must be a right, not a privilege in Canada. That is why we need all MPs to support my private member’s bill. Thank you. Jack?
Jack Layton: Good morning. I have been involved for I guess 22 years in dealing with the issues of housing and affordable housing in our cities and I have watched the growth of homelessness in my own city of Toronto over recent years to truly shocking and heartbreaking proportions. I guess it was when Eugene Upper (ph.) froze to death one block from my home in a TDC subway shelter that for Olivia and I, we were shocked into action.
As a result of some of those events, movements have formed across Toronto and then ultimately across Canada calling for solutions and yet, what we have seen is the situation become worse and worse. La situation des sans abri qui sont les personnes, qui sont les citoyens et citoyennes de notre pays, la situation des sans abri devient de plus en plus pire. Ils sont plus nombreux, ils sont dans nos rues, ils manquent quelque chose à manger, ils manquent la protection absolument essentielle pour la vie dans n’importe quel pays, même le Canada, un pays assez froid.
It has always been a part of Canada to try to address the needs of those who were struggling in our society and pushed to the bottom and yet, it is as though we have abandoned that fundamental concept of what is fair and what is just in Canada.
Je veux que nos jeunes sachent qu’il y a quelques années, je pouvais marcher au centre-ville de Toronto ou Montréal ou Vancouver et que je ne voyais pas un seul sans abri, mais maintenant c’est presqu’impossible de faire ça. On peut trouver une solution. I need our young people to know that it hasn’t always been like this, that there were times not too many years ago when most cities in Canada simply didn’t have a homeless problem, certainly nothing anywhere near what we see today. We must not let this homeless situation become situation normal.
Our party, Canada’s NDP believes that there has to be both a short-term and a long-term approach to tackling the crisis of homelessness here in this country. For the long-term, we call on the federal government to establish and to dedicate 1% of GDP for housing. This will create sufficient affordable housing each year to dig us out of this crisis and provide some hope, some light at the end of the tunnel. Le NPD croit que nous devons avoir une approche à court et à long terme afin de s’attaquer à la crise des sans abri qui sévit au Canada. Pour le long terme, nous demandons au gouvernement de dédier au logement social 1 % du PIB.
In the short term, the New Democratic Party is calling on the prime minister to declare a state of emergency in Canada concerning homelessness. Le Nouveau Parti Démocratique demande au premier ministre de déclarer l’état d’urgence au Canada sur la crise des sans abri. On a besoin de cette déclaration d’urgence concernant les sans abri pour que le fédéral peut agir avec les provinces et avec les municipalités et collectivités dans une façon rapide. On ne peut pas discuter de la situation pendant l’hiver. On doit agir pour les nombreuses personnes qui ont besoin de notre aide.
In the National Emergencies Act, and I quote, ” A national emergency is defined as one that is an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature that exceeds a province’s ability to cope with the situation and threatens the welfare of Canadians.” Well, clearly the rising crisis of homelessness fits that definition. When we have an ice storm and everybody rallies to help a part of the community. When we have a flood, when people have been driven from their homes, if we have wild fires, the resources are brought to bear so that communities, individuals and families get the help that they need. Homelessness is exactly that sort of an insidious and critical problem.
Such a state of emergency would allow the federal government to immediately authorize essential services to be provided, authorize emergency payments to be made and establish emergency shelters and hospitals or clinics as they are required. This is exactly the sort of action which is needed right now. Le gouvernement fédéral doit travailler avec les leaders provinciaux, territoriaux et des municipalités ainsi que les travailleurs de première ligne pour s’attaquer à l’urgence de cette crise avant que l’hiver arrive pour de bon.
At a time when Canada is facing unprecedented wealth, it is unacceptable and intolerable that poverty is skyrocketing at the same moment with the terrible human consequences of individuals and communities suffering from the affordable housing crisis and from homelessness. Let’s get something done about it, let’s use the tools that government has available and that municipalities and others have called upon the government to use for years. It is time for action. C’est maintenant le temps à agir. Merci beaucoup.
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