Speech (House debate)

{
    "time": "2018-11-27 20:05:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island\u2014Powell River, NDP)",
        "fr": "Mme Rachel Blaney (North Island\u2014Powell River, NPD)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"5687486\" data-originallang=\"en\">Mr. Speaker, I am here today because I asked a question of the minister about a woman in my riding named Pat. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687487\" data-originallang=\"en\">Pat is now 80 and was desperately ill. In fact, her family was not certain how long she would be with us. The good news is that Pat got better. The bad news is that during her time of having a hard health issue, she did not have a home any more. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687488\" data-originallang=\"en\">The reality for Pat is that she was told by the hospital that she would have to leave. She had nowhere to go and ended up spending months in a hotel where the rent was $500 a week, which was much more than the pension she had. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687489\" data-originallang=\"en\">When we look at the reality of seniors across Canada who are facing the same challenges that Pat is, we want to make sure that they have a safe place to go, that seniors are not homeless and put in this situation.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687490\" data-originallang=\"en\">It is important to recognize that in our communities, including the communities that I represent in North Island\u2014Powell River, that there are a lot of organizations working hard every day to address issues of homelessness and the high risk of homelessness that is happening in so many communities across Canada. I would like to name just a few in my riding: the Campbell River and District Coalition to End Homelessness; Grassroots Kind Hearts Society, which feeds people in Campbell River every day; the Salvation Army Lighthouse Resource Centre in Port Hardy, which provides lunch five times a week; Port Hardy Seniors, of which I am a member, that feeds seniors lunch every Tuesday and provides many opportunities for activities in the community; Homelessness Partnering Strategy funded in Port Hardy through the Sacred Wolf Friendship Centre; Comox Valley Coalition to End Homelessness; Dawn to Dawn in Comox Valley, which does so much to support those who are at high risk and homeless; Community Resource Center of Powell River, which recently received 20 beds to provide emergency shelter; Powell River committee against homelessness; and the Salvation Army, which has shelters in several of the communities I represent.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687491\" data-originallang=\"en\">These are just a few of the organizations that work hard every day with people across our communities who are facing significant challenges with housing.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687492\" data-originallang=\"en\">It is so important that we recognize that in rural and remote parts of Canada, housing is a significant crisis. The organizations I mentioned before do everything they can, but they need a more active partner in the federal government. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687493\" data-originallang=\"en\">In B.C., we are actually seeing what an active partner looks like. Recently, the housing minister of B.C. made a significant announcement in investments for housing. What I really appreciate is that rather than leaving the majority of the resources at the back end, like the federal government currently is with 90% not even beginning to move until the next election, the housing minister is making sure that it is in the front, as the housing minister said in an announcement about the housing crisis in B.C. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687494\" data-originallang=\"en\">She said, \u201cWe\u2019re frontloading because it\u2019s so desperate...It breaks my heart every time I hear a story, and I heard another one today, of a community, an Indigenous community that is reeling from two suicide deaths of young people.\u201d This is from an article in The Tyee. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687495\" data-originallang=\"en\">I want to be really clear. This provincial B.C. government is dedicating funding for 1,100 units of indigenous housing both on and off reserve. Provinces do not usually fund housing on reserve. Usually, they step out of that and see it as a federal responsibility, but as the article said, on-reserve housing has been a federal responsibility since 1867 and has been chronically underfunded. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687496\" data-originallang=\"en\">When we look at stories like Pat's, we know that there is a significant issue for seniors across this country, and we need to make sure that they do not fall through the cracks. I want to make sure that today in the House that people understand that seniors simply cannot wait.</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"5687486\" data-originallang=\"en\">Monsieur le Pr\u00e9sident, je prends la parole aujourd'hui parce que j'ai pos\u00e9 une question au ministre au sujet d'une femme de ma circonscription qui s'appelle Pat. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687487\" data-originallang=\"en\">Pat a 80 ans. Elle a \u00e9t\u00e9 gravement malade. En fait, sa famille craignait qu'il ne lui reste pas beaucoup de temps \u00e0 vivre. La bonne nouvelle est que l'\u00e9tat de sant\u00e9 de Pat s'est am\u00e9lior\u00e9. La mauvaise nouvelle est que pendant qu'elle \u00e9tait aux prises avec des probl\u00e8mes de sant\u00e9 difficiles, elle n'avait plus de maison. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687488\" data-originallang=\"en\">L'h\u00f4pital lui a dit qu'elle devait partir, et elle n'avait nulle part o\u00f9 aller. Elle a pass\u00e9 des mois dans un h\u00f4tel o\u00f9 elle payait un loyer de 500 $ par semaine, ce qui repr\u00e9sentait une somme beaucoup plus \u00e9lev\u00e9e que la pension qu'elle recevait. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687489\" data-originallang=\"en\">Nous voulons veiller \u00e0 ce que les personnes \u00e2g\u00e9es qui sont dans des situations semblables \u00e0 celle de Pat, au Canada, puissent trouver un endroit s\u00fbr pour vivre et ne basculent pas dans l'itin\u00e9rance, avec tout ce qui en r\u00e9sulte.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687490\" data-originallang=\"en\">Il est important de souligner les efforts des nombreux organismes qui oeuvrent dans nos collectivit\u00e9s, y compris celles de North Island\u2014Powell River, que je repr\u00e9sente. Ces organismes travaillent fort tous les jours pour s'attaquer au probl\u00e8me de l'itin\u00e9rance et du risque \u00e9lev\u00e9 d'itin\u00e9rance qui existe dans tant de collectivit\u00e9s au Canada. J'aimerais nommer quelques organismes de ma circonscription: la Campbell River and District Coalition to End Homelessness; la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Grassroots Kind Hearts, qui nourrit chaque jour des gens de Campbell River; le Centre de ressources Lighthouse de l'Arm\u00e9e du Salut \u00e0 Port Hardy, qui offre des d\u00e9jeuners cinq jours semaine; l'organisme Port Hardy Seniors, dont je fais partie, qui offre un d\u00e9jeuner aux a\u00een\u00e9s tous les mardis et organise toutes sortes d'activit\u00e9s dans la collectivit\u00e9; la Homelessness Partnering Strategy, fond\u00e9e \u00e0 Port Hardy par l'interm\u00e9diaire du Centre d'amiti\u00e9 Sacred Wolf; la Comox Valley Coalition to End Homelessness; l'organisme Dawn to Dawn de Comox Valley, qui offre un soutien \u00e9norme aux sans-abris et ceux qui sont \u00e0 haut risque de le devenir; le Centre de ressources communautaires de Powell River, qui a r\u00e9cemment obtenu 20 lits afin d'offrir un refuge d'urgence; le comit\u00e9 de Powell River contre l'itin\u00e9rance; et l'Arm\u00e9e du Salut, qui a des refuges dans plusieurs des localit\u00e9s que je repr\u00e9sente. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687491\" data-originallang=\"en\">Ce ne sont l\u00e0 que quelques-uns des organismes qui travaillent sans rel\u00e2che pour aider les gens de nos collectivit\u00e9s qui font face \u00e0 de graves probl\u00e8mes de logement. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687492\" data-originallang=\"en\">Il est extr\u00eamement important que nous reconnaissions la grave crise du logement qui s\u00e9vit dans les r\u00e9gions rurales et \u00e9loign\u00e9es du Canada. Les organismes que j'ai mentionn\u00e9s plus t\u00f4t font tout ce qu'ils peuvent, mais ils ont besoin que le gouvernement f\u00e9d\u00e9ral joue un r\u00f4le plus actif.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687493\" data-originallang=\"en\">En Colombie-Britannique, nous avons la chance de pouvoir compter sur un partenaire qui joue un tel r\u00f4le. R\u00e9cemment, la ministre responsable du logement de la province a annonc\u00e9 des investissements majeurs. Je me r\u00e9jouis particuli\u00e8rement du fait que la majorit\u00e9 des ressources ne seront pas attribu\u00e9es \u00e0 la fin d'une longue p\u00e9riode, contrairement \u00e0 ce que fait le gouvernement f\u00e9d\u00e9ral, dont 90 % des mesures ne seront m\u00eame pas lanc\u00e9es avant les prochaines \u00e9lections. La ministre responsable du logement, elle, tient \u00e0 ce que les investissements soient faits d\u00e8s maintenant, comme elle l'a dit dans une annonce sur la crise du logement en Colombie-Britannique.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687494\" data-originallang=\"en\">Elle a affirm\u00e9 ceci: \u00ab Nous concentrons les d\u00e9penses d\u00e8s maintenant parce que la situation est carr\u00e9ment d\u00e9sesp\u00e9r\u00e9e [...] Chaque histoire que j'entends me brise le coeur. J'en ai encore entendu une aujourd'hui \u00e0 propos d'une communaut\u00e9 autochtone \u00e9branl\u00e9e par le suicide de deux jeunes. \u00bb La citation vient d'un article du <em>Tyee</em>.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687495\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je tiens \u00e0 \u00eatre bien claire. Le gouvernement de la Colombie-Britannique verse des fonds pour la construction de 1 100 logements autochtones dans les r\u00e9serves et \u00e0 l'ext\u00e9rieur de celles-ci. En g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, les provinces ne financent pas le logement dans les r\u00e9serves. Habituellement, elles ne s'occupent pas de ce dossier parce qu'elles consid\u00e8rent qu'il rel\u00e8ve de la comp\u00e9tence f\u00e9d\u00e9rale. Toutefois, comme il est indiqu\u00e9 dans l'article, le logement dans les r\u00e9serves est une responsabilit\u00e9 du f\u00e9d\u00e9ral depuis 1867, mais il est chroniquement sous-financ\u00e9.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5687496\" data-originallang=\"en\">\u00c0 la lumi\u00e8re d'histoires comme celle de Pat, il est \u00e9vident que les a\u00een\u00e9s font face \u00e0 un grave probl\u00e8me dans ce pays. Nous devons tout faire pour qu'ils ne passent pas entre les mailles du filet. Je veux \u00eatre certaine que les d\u00e9put\u00e9s comprennent aujourd'hui que les a\u00een\u00e9s ne peuvent tout simplement plus attendre.</p>"
    },
    "url": "/debates/2018/11/27/rachel-blaney-1/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/rachel-blaney/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/4199/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "10405468",
    "h1": {
        "en": "Adjournment Proceedings",
        "fr": "Motion d'ajournement"
    },
    "h2": {
        "en": "Housing",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "document_url": "/debates/2018/11/27/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fdebates%2F2018%2F11%2F27%2F"
    }
}