I notice that in his Yuletide address PM Trudeau gives himself a pat on the back for "putting the first ever National Housing Strategy into action."
Not so fast, Fluffy! What do you mean by "action?" So far the only thing that's been put into action in the year+ since this alleged strategy was introduced is this spiffy website called A place to call home.
Dude, a website is not a roof!
There's some interesting stuff in there though. That "Canada Housing Benefit" will subsidize your rent by up to $200 bucks a month! Unfortunately, you have to have a roof before you can get the subsidy. How does that help the homeless?
The other tricky thing is it doesn't kick in till well after the next election. As such it's one of those vote-buying shenanigans not unlike the previous Ontario government's $15 min wage; the only way to get the goodies is to vote the incumbent in again.
Another red flag should be the discrepancy between the headlines ballyhooing the $40B price tag for this program and what the government is actually committing. You have to read the fine print to find out that's not actual program money. That's "joint investment" money, over ten years.
Joint means Fed money, the dollars Trudeau presumably has some control over, plus provincial, plus municipal, plus non-profit, plus private sector. In other words, this is a joint venture by five parties. Trudeau speaks for one of them. To my way of thinking, until the other 4/5ths of the partnership make some solid financial commitments, there is in effect no actual National Housing Strategy.
So let's call it what it is, Mr Trudeau. It's not a National Housing Strategy; it's a "talking about a National Housing Strategy" strategy.
There's a difference.
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