Achi news desk-
The office of Quebec’s Minister of Housing, France-Alain Duranceau, prefers to openly ignore the journalists’ requests.
This is according to an email obtained by the Canadian Press. The Minister’s Office was asked about the recognition of the right to housing as a fundamental right of the individual.
The press attaché, who was invited once again to comment a week after an initial request, forwarded to The Canadian Press an email apparently intended for a colleague: “Will I heal her again? If not, a blanket response that doesn’t answer to say that. Housing is a priority for our government ?”
It didn’t take long for the opposition to respond at the end of the day.
“Here’s what France-Élaine Duranceau thinks about the right to housing in Quebec,” wrote MNA Joël Arseneau on X, formerly Twitter.
“We suspected just as much, the reality is even more tragic,” he said.
The Canadian Press asked each province if it agreed with the federal housing representative that housing is a human right, and if it intended to pass legislation guaranteeing it.
As of Friday afternoon, Minister Duranso’s office had not yet responded to The Canadian Press’ request.
As more and more Canadians struggle to find affordable housing, the country’s smallest province is the only one that could benefit from legislation recognizing housing as a basic individual right.
Prince Edward Island responded with a link to its Residential Tenancies Act, the first line of which acknowledges that Canada has signed a UN convention recognizing housing as a human right — although critics point out there is nothing in the provincial legislation to support that right after that.
Most counties did not respond directly to questions, listing a long list of initiatives launched to address the simmering housing crisis.
In Manitoba, the response was that the government recognized Canada’s “rights-based approach to housing,” and Newfoundland and Labrador indicated it agreed with federal and international laws that recognize housing as an individual right.
In its report on homeless encampments released on February 13, the Federal Housing Administration urged every province to recognize the “human right to adequate housing as defined in international law” law.
Marie Jose Hall wondered in an interview if the provinces simply do not understand what it means to explicitly state that they consider housing a human right.
Hall says that under the bilateral agreement they all signed as part of the 2018 National Housing Strategy, it means the provinces will adopt a “human rights-based approach to housing.”
For the housing advocate, this means meeting and listening to the homeless and trying to find them housing that meets their needs, instead of deciding what is best for them without their input and forcing them into intermediate measures, like shelters, where they don’t want to go.
This also includes providing heat, electricity and services to people living in homeless encampments if there is no suitable housing, Houle claims.
“Basically, it’s a commitment based on the recognition that homelessness is a systemic problem and that people are homeless because governments at all levels have failed them,” she says.
And to the provinces she says: “We need all the players at the table.”
Dale Whitmore, of the Canadian Center for Housing Rights, argues that provinces can take a simple first step toward recognizing and respecting housing as a human right by adding a clause to their rental legislation stating that eviction should be an absolute last resort.
For Whitmore, it is essential that the provinces not only follow Hall’s recommendations and adopt legislation that recognizes housing as a human right, but also subsequently protect this right. He notes that while Prince Edward Island’s tenancy law recognizes this right, it offers nothing to enforce it.
“We need regulations that keep rents reasonable and protect tenants from excessively high rents,” he says.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Fresh on April 26, 2024.
