Provinces and territories have agreed to fund a key financial pillar supporting the Trudeau Liberals? decade-long housing strategy, vowing to spend billions to repair and build social housing units and create a new rental benefit.
Several of the key programs in the housing strategy unveiled in November rested on provinces and territories matching promised new federal funding to the tune of $8.6 billion. All regions, except Quebec, now have agreed to match about $7.7 billion in planned spending through to 2028.
Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Photo by G. Baranski via Wikimedia Commons.
The fine print of the plan shows that up to half of what the federal government would count as matching funding can come from cities, Indigenous organizations, charities, or the private sector. The agreement also says that some money spent since the start of the month might also be counted against the $7.7 billion pledge. The Liberals have promised to introduce federal legislation that would make it difficult for a future federal government to back out of the strategy to help provinces and territories set long-term plans, instead of wondering how much they might receive year by year.
?We know that this is extremely important for provinces and territories that want to plan over the long term,? Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in an interview Monday.
?It?s clear, of course, that future governments ? future federal governments or even future provincial and territorial governments ? coul...