Thursday, March 28, 2024
ADVT 
National

Ottawa unsure if it’s reducing homelessness: AG

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 15 Nov, 2022 03:02 PM
  • Ottawa unsure if it’s reducing homelessness: AG

OTTAWA - The federal government doesn’t know if its initiatives aimed at reducing chronic homelessness are actually working, says auditor general Karen Hogan.

In a new report, Hogan said no organization has taken the lead on the federal government’s goal of reducing chronic homelessness by 50 per cent by 2028.

The report said Infrastructure Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada do not know whether their programs are improving housing outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.

The auditor general provides oversight to the federal government by conducting audits of its operations and financial accounts.

Hogan released four reports on Tuesday assessing the government's performance on a range of issues, including chronic homelessness, emergency management in First Nations communities, Arctic waters surveillance and cybersecurity of personal information on the cloud.

"When I look at the four performance audit reports we've released today, I see a common thread," Hogan said, namely that government organizations are often slow to use the tools at their disposal to deliver results.

She said data gaps are common across the federal government, making it challenging to assess the progress on different goals.

Hogan said what's most frustrating for her as the auditor general is that federal departments know about these gaps.

"The fact that … there's very little concrete action is possibly the most frustrating thing, in that departments know," she said. "And so, why aren't they taking the actions needed?"

Those gaps made it impossible for the auditor to properly assess whether the federal government was reducing chronic homelessness as promised.

Infrastructure Canada spent $1.36 billion on reducing homelessness as part of the Reaching Home program between 2019 and 2021, and yet the audit found the department didn’t know whether homelessness increased or decreased during that time frame.

Since 2018, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has spent $4.5 billion as the lead on the national housing strategy. However, the report found that the CMHC doesn’t know who is benefiting from its programs.

The national housing strategy was announced by the Liberals in 2017 as a 10-year, multi-billion-dollar plan to expand affordable housing to more Canadians.

In her assessment, the auditor general also found that some rentals billed as affordable units were not in fact affordable to low-income households.

A unit is considered affordable when rent costs less than 30 per cent of a household’s before-tax income.

However, the average rental price of units approved under the National Housing Co-Investment Fund was higher than that in several provinces and territories.

In Nunavut, the average cost was 46 per cent of household income, while in Ontario and Manitoba, it was above 37 per cent.

The auditor general says Infrastructure Canada and CMHC were not working in a co-ordinated way and their initiatives were not well integrated.

Without co-ordination, the federal government is unlikely to achieve its target of halving chronic homelessness by 2028, the report found.

Hogan's recommendations include collecting and analyzing data on homelessness in a timely manner.

The report says Infrastructure Canada and the CMHC have accepted the recommendations.

"We as a government continue to believe that everyone in Canada has the right to a safe and affordable place to call home," Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

The minister acknowledged the government needs to do a better job of collecting information and said an online system has been launched to capture data on chronic homelessness.

He blamed the lack of data on community groups struggling to collect information while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

MORE National ARTICLES

Coquitlam RCMP ask: Is this your ring?

Coquitlam RCMP ask: Is this your ring?
A good Samaritan turned the ring into the Coquitlam RCMP - Ridgeway Community Police station after it was located on a trail near the water at Rolley Lake Provinical Park in Mission at the beginning of September, 2022.

Coquitlam RCMP ask: Is this your ring?

Merritt RCMP investigating series of early morning shootings

Merritt RCMP investigating series of early morning shootings
Police believe all the incidents are related and targeted. The investigation is currently in the extremely early stages and investigators are prioritizing their efforts and task as they gather evidence as well as speak to witnesses.

Merritt RCMP investigating series of early morning shootings

Flu epidemic has begun as rates soar: PHAC

Flu epidemic has begun as rates soar: PHAC
The agency's FluWatch report says Canada has now entered a flu epidemic, which is declared most years after the threshold of a 5 per cent positivity rate is surpassed. It says the week of Oct. 30 to Nov. 5 saw a test positivity rate of 11.7 per cent, compared to 6.3 per cent the previous week.

Flu epidemic has begun as rates soar: PHAC

Trudeau pledges cash for infrastructure, vaccines

Trudeau pledges cash for infrastructure, vaccines
It's the largest funding agreement the Liberals have made as part of their forthcoming Indo-Pacific strategy, and part of a G20 project meant to help low- and middle-income countries have safer and more sustainable cities.

Trudeau pledges cash for infrastructure, vaccines

Kids' medicine coming, but no detail on how much

Kids' medicine coming, but no detail on how much
Senior officials are answering questions at a House of Commons committee as hospitals and nervous parents with sick kids at home struggle to find children's Tylenol and Advil.

Kids' medicine coming, but no detail on how much

Bird flu fighters face unprecedented challenge

Bird flu fighters face unprecedented challenge
By some measures, the ongoing outbreaks of avian flu in British Columbia pale when compared to the devastating eruption of the disease in 2004 that prompted a cull of 17 million birds. But the enemy that farmers and scientists now face represents an unprecedented challenge, experts say.  

Bird flu fighters face unprecedented challenge

PrevNext