CHF Canada media release

Housing ministers’ meeting fails to give hope to 4 million Canadians

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April 3, 2008 – Yesterday’s meeting of Federal-Provincial-Territorial housing ministers failed the 4 million Canadians who need housing, the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada said today.

“The number of Canadians living in core housing need is staggering – as many as the population of the city of Toronto,” said Nicholas Gazzard, Executive Director.

"Though Minister Monte Solberg kept his promise to meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts, he did not show any indication that the federal government was interested in helping to address Canada’s housing crisis. He did not address the principles that were agreed to in 2005. These called on the federal government to provide ‘adequate, predictable and sustainable federal funding to the provinces and territories’,” said Gazzard.

CHF Canada has urged the federal government to introduce a national action plan, involving all levels of government, to end housing need. Although Ottawa has allocated funds in recent years, affordable housing providers have said that only stable, multi-year funding can tackle the problem.

“There is an urgent need to guarantee that Canadians have affordable homes to live in. The federal government needs to heed the latest calls for action from the provinces and territories, and community stakeholders such as non-profit housing co-operatives,” said Gazzard. “Along with other housing stakeholders, co-ops want to be a part of the solution. But Ottawa has to take the lead. Canada’s housing crisis touches every part of the country, and it's going to take national leadership if a strategy is to be devised to tackle it.”

CHF Canada is the national voice of the Canadian co-operative housing movement. Its members include nearly 900 non-profit housing co-operatives as well as organizations that are closely linked with housing cooperatives.

For more information, contact:

Nicholas Gazzard, Executive Director (613) 230-2201 ext. 230, or (613) 293-8913 (cell)

Merrilee Robson, Program Manager, Communications, 1-877-533-2667, ext. 122, or (604) 512-2696 (cell)

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