Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
National

Liberals Put 'Right To Housing,' Anti-Poverty Laws Into Omnibus Budget Bill

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 11 Apr, 2019 08:05 PM

    OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are using their omnibus budget bill to legislate a "right to housing" and the requirements on future government to not drop the concept.


    The budget bill sets into law rules around the Liberals' 10-year national housing strategy, valued at more than $40 billion, and creates two new oversight bodies meant to make sure the spending reduces homelessness.


    A national housing council is to advise the government on the effects of the strategy and a new housing advocate is to report annually on systemic issues preventing Canadians from finding affordable and safe places to live.


    Reports would also be required every three years on how well the strategy is meeting national goals and furthering "the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing."


    In each case, the minister in charge of the strategy would have to "reply and act" on the reports, said Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, "which will ensure there is sufficient pressure on the federal government to meet the legislated right to housing."


    Duclos is to discuss the right to housing at an event Thursday morning.


    Characterizing housing as a human right is meant to provide recourse, usually through tribunals, to anyone wrongfully denied a home for reasons such as ethnicity, religion, or gender identity, and put pressure on the federal government to help make the right a reality.


    "The federal government has admitted to having an obligation when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable of Canadians," Duclos said in an interview Wednesday. "There will always need to be a continuing conversation (and) that's exactly what the bill says — the national housing strategy will need to evolve, but I think we've made major steps in very little time."


    The Liberals had been looking into setting the right to housing into law since early in their mandate, when they met with housing advocates about ways to pump more money into affordable housing.


    But as time wore on, those same advocates became concerned about whether the government would have the time needed to pass a law before the next election.


    Putting the housing strategy law into the budget bill is tacit acknowledgment that time was running short. Inside the budget bill, it is assured passage by the summer.


    Also in the budget bill is the government's poverty-reduction law, which was part of a separate bill introduced in early November that hasn't been debated since the end of that month.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    MAP OF EXTREMISM: Anti-Discrimination Organization Wants To Map Offenders With Hate Atlas

    VANCOUVER — An advocacy organization says it wants to map hatred and discrimination across Canada in a move that is prompting warnings of caution from one civil liberties group.

    MAP OF EXTREMISM: Anti-Discrimination Organization Wants To Map Offenders With Hate Atlas

    'I'm A Little Numb:' Killer Of B.C. Gas Station Attendant Grant De Patie Dies

    BLIND BAY, B.C. — The mother of a British Columbia gas station attendant dragged to death under a vehicle more than a decade ago, says she is "numb" to learn her son's killer has died.

    'I'm A Little Numb:' Killer Of B.C. Gas Station Attendant Grant De Patie Dies

    Cheetahs Will Not Prosper In B.C.: Panel Rejects Permit Request For Two Big Cats

    The owners of two cheetahs will not be allowed to return the large, African cats to southeastern British Columbia to use them as ambassador animals promoting conservation of the endangered species.

    Cheetahs Will Not Prosper In B.C.: Panel Rejects Permit Request For Two Big Cats

    B.C. Judge Orders RCMP To Give Meng Data On Devices Seized During Arrest

    Justice Heather Holmes of the British Columbia Supreme Court says the RCMP must make copies for Meng Wanzhou of data on an iPhone, an iPad, a Macbook Air, a Huawei phone, two SIM cards and a flash drive.

    B.C. Judge Orders RCMP To Give Meng Data On Devices Seized During Arrest

    Trans Woman Hopes Funding Cut Will Send Message To Vancouver Rape Crisis Group

    "The organization is not bad," said Nixon. "It just means that attitudes have to change."    

    Trans Woman Hopes Funding Cut Will Send Message To Vancouver Rape Crisis Group

    Sir John A. Macdonald Statue Vandalized Again In Downtown Montreal

    Vandals struck a Sir John A. Macdonald statue in downtown Montreal once again, spray painting the imposing bronze monument to the country's first prime minister early Thursday.

    Sir John A. Macdonald Statue Vandalized Again In Downtown Montreal