Social Services Minister Jason Nixon accused Ottawa of “ripping off Alberta”
Published Aug 04, 2023 • Last updated 12 hours ago • 3 minute read
A constriction worker works on the outside of a prefabricated supportive housing complex being built for the City of Edmonton at 6210 Terrace Road on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022 in Edmonton. The building was designed by GEC Architecture. Photo by Greg Southam /Postmedia
The issue of housing emerged this week as the latest flashpoint between the Alberta and federal governments, with both sides, and mayors of the province’s two largest municipalities, acknowledging the issue but disagreeing over details.
On Tuesday, Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon held a fiery press conference in Calgary where he accused Ottawa of “ripping off Alberta” by withholding federal funding for housing.
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It came hours after Nixon published an open letter to federal Housing and Infrastructure Minister Sean Fraser, signed by Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, to provide more money for housing projects in Alberta.
“We are concerned that the federal government does not have a comprehensive understanding of the unique challenges Alberta and Alberta’s largest municipalities face, particularly the significant over-representation of Indigenous people in our homeless population and the need for deep subsidy affordable housing.”
“Even the mayor of Calgary and the mayor of Edmonton know Justin Trudeau is ripping off Alberta,” Nixon told reporters later in the day.
The dispute is over financial allocation from Ottawa’s $1.5 billion Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), which funds affordable housing units for vulnerable Canadians and is run by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
Nixon’s letter states CMHC approved six of 39 requests from Alberta, representing 2.5 per cent of program funding for a province that is home to about 12 per cent of Canada’s population.
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The letter also calls on Ottawa to review the RHI’s funding formula to provide for a “more equitable funding model.”
“I’m very disappointed we weren’t able to get equitable support from the federal government,” Sohi said later in the day.
New federal housing minister
The letter comes less than a week after Fraser was sworn in as housing and infrastructure minister, having previously served as minister of immigration.
His office issued a statement in response, challenging Nixon’s characterization while pointing to $230 million provided to Alberta through two earlier rounds of RHI funding.
“Of the three rounds of the Rapid Housing Initiative, Alberta’s funding will help establish 1,776 units of the 15,539 expected across Canada. This represents 11.4 per cent of the total units, a roughly per capita allocation of funding to Alberta,” it reads.
“We will continue to work with all levels of government and relevant non-government stakeholders to reach housing solutions for everyone in Alberta.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commented on July 31 that housing “isn’t a primary federal responsibility. It’s not something that we have direct carriage of.”
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Fraser’s office took a different tone, stating, “our federal government will continue to take a leadership role on housing, but we cannot solve these issues alone.”
The two sides announced what is now a $1.1 billion joint housing investment in 2019 that included funding for low-income Albertans.
‘Affordable and attainable home ownership’
Provincial and municipal governments have responsibility for land-use planning, zoning and permitting, and the mandate letter issued to Nixon on Thursday by Premier Danielle Smith shows the Alberta government is looking make more active use of those powers.
The letter calls on Nixon to “develop and implement an affordable and attainable home ownership and rental strategy that focuses on incentivizing the construction of new homes and rental units and creating additional financing options for prospective homeowners.”
Details on that plan remain to be seen but the UCP government’s latest budget allocated a combined $1 billion for affordable housing capital grants, support for housing providers, and rent assistance.
Opposition housing critic Janis Irwin said the government had previously cut many of those areas and, while she supported calls for increased federal housing funding, UCP policies had made the situation more difficult for Albertans.
“We know we need immediate action on the housing crisis, and that requires all orders of government to come to the table. Now, they’re happy to point fingers elsewhere for their own failures.”
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