Trudeau says feds aren't primarily responsible for housing, but how responsible are they?
Experts say Ottawa's role in housing sector has grown (Richard Raycraft · CBC News)
Trudeau is not wrong that housing is primarily a provincial responsibility. That said, he is telling a half truth because the federal government absolutely used to fund social housing and no longer does. What I definitely do not want to see is different levels of government bickering about responsibility while this hugely important issue remains unfixed.
federal government absolutely used to fund social housing and no longer does.
What are the chances of the provinces accepting the funding again, though? They kicked and screamed just to accept a paltry sum for subsidized childcare. This would be a lot bigger deal than that.
Particularly if you believe the provinces are purposefully creating the situation, as many do.
I feel like the article doesn't address my point very well, though. It uses relative terms like 'more' and 'grown' to suggest the federal government is taking on a greater role, but it's measuring from a time where it was doing the least. If the federal government wanted to involve itself in housing it could re-implement the policy is had from the 40's through the 80's and directly fund the building of social housing.
Unfortunately since the pervasiveness of neoliberal thought from the Mulroney/Thatcher/Reagan era on, the federal government only likes to act through gaming the system with tax incentives rather than directly making and executing a plan. Every new development has to be created through the filter of making a private entity a profit and we're all suffering from the end results of that philosophy now.
This is basically true, however, since ratification of the constitution, the feds are more limited in their ability to intrude into provincial jurisdiction.