Housing Minister Erskine-Smith calls on Ontario to do more for social housing

OTTAWA — Federal Housing Minister Nate Erskine-Smith is calling on the Ontario government to do more to address social housing needs in the province.

At a press conference in Ottawa to announce a new deal on housing the homeless between Ottawa and nearly a dozen municipalities in Ontario and Saskatchewan, Erskine-Smith said that while Ontario has increased its supports for the homeless, the government of Premier Doug Ford has reduced supports for community housing “by roughly the same amount.”

“We need community housing if we want a long-term solution. A shelter bed just doesn’t offer the stability we all need,” Erskine-Smith said at his first announcement since taking over the housing portfolio last month.

“As we’ve ramped up federal spending on community and social housing, the Ontario government has seen fit to reduce its own commitments in this space.”

Erskine-Smith said the province has seen spending on social housing decline by nearly 10 per cent, even after factoring in federal commitments.

“Ontario is the only province — the only province — where responsibility for social housing has been downloaded to municipalities,” Erskine-Smith continued.

“It doesn’t need to be this way, and frankly it wasn’t always this way.”

Erskine-Smith’s first announcement was a two-year, $91 million agreement with nine Ontario municipalities, as well as Regina and Saskatoon, to support the municipalities’ encampment response plans. The municipalities will match Ottawa’s contributions.

Those plans include creating new shelter spaces and increasing transitional housing options.

A similar deal worth $6.4 million was signed with the City of London in December.

The federal government made deals directly with the municipalities after being unable to come to agreements with the governments of Ontario and Saskatchewan.

While the agreements preceded him, Erskine-Smith said those two provinces were not willing to match the government’s contributions.

“I did speak with the minister in Ontario, and he indicated there was always a willingness in reaching a deal, and things went sideways for one reason or another,” he said.

“Obviously, timeliness was a consideration here. When winter’s coming, you gotta make sure you’re delivering all the supports you need in a real short period of time. At the end of the day, we just needed to get these deals done and so had to reach directly to municipalities.”

Erskine-Smith said deals have been reached with all other provinces and territories, with details to be announced in the coming weeks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 22, 2025.

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press