Good News from the North

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged for the first time that housing is a fundamental human right that should be protected under  Canadian law.  While the move is highly symbolic, it will also have practical implications if the government follows through with its pledge to create a long-term, bench-marked national housing plan.  Among other things, the proposed housing plan will allocate $40-billion to support the construction of more social housing, repair old units and deliver up to $2,500 a year in rent support for vulnerable families.  A separate national housing strategy for indigenous peoples will be announced at a later date.

Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing (who also happens to be Canadian) hailed the Prime Minister’s announcement as a positive development.  Said the Special Rapporteur, “[i]t’s historic to have adopted a housing strategy at all, but to have added to that all these strong human rights recognitions … for me it’s a really big step that this government, and all governments of Canada, have really resisted in the past. They’ve been repeatedly told, since 1993, by the UN that they need a housing strategy. So, it’s been a long time coming.”