[homeles_ot-l] FW: FRAPRU accuses Stephen Harper of washing his hands of any responsibility to protect housing rights

[Lynne Browne]

FYI - a budget response.
Lynne Browne
Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH) 
613-241-7913, ext 205
lbrowne at ysb.on.ca <mailto:lbrowne at ysb.on.ca>  
147 Besserer St., Ottawa ON  K1N 6A7 
www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca <http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/>  

________________________________

From: "Véronique Laflamme (FRAPRU)" [mailto:veronique at frapru.qc.ca]
Sent: Tue 22/03/2011 4:28 PM
To: veronique Laflamme
Subject: FRAPRU accuses Stephen Harper of washing his hands of any responsibility to protect housing rights



Press Release                                                                                                                                                                                                             For immediate press release

 

FRAPRU accuses Stephen Harper of washing his hands of any responsibility to protect housing rights 

 

Montreal, March 22nd 2011 - "By failing to announce any new investments in social housing or even affordable housing in the budget, Stephen Harper's government has washed its hands with respect to housing rights. The government is leaving the badly housed and the homeless on their own while moving us back to the dark period between 1994 and 2001 after another Conservative government, that of Brian Mulroney, brutally cancelled funding for new social housing units in Canada."

 

It is in these terms that the coordinator of FRAPRU, a Quebec-wide coalition of 130 groups, François Saillant, characterised the budget presented today by the finance minister, Jim Flaherty.

 

FRAPRU points out that the budget ends the funding provided for social housing stemming from Canada's economic action plan announced in January 2009. Quebec will loose $56.7 million per year for the construction of new social housing units and $77.8 million for the renovation and improvement of existing public housing.

 

To add insult to injury, the budget does not even manage to confirm the continuation of the Affordable Housing Initiative, in place for ten years. The Preliminary budget of principal expenses 2011-2012, presented earlier this month by the Treasury Board, also announced this cancellation effective March 2011.

 

In this case, Quebec will see itself lose $28.9 million in funding which it spends on constructing new social housing through its AccèsLogis program. While these amounts represent only crumbs of what is required when faced with the problems posed by the need for decent housing and combating homelessness, FRAPRU points out that the Harper government is making a U-turn on an official announcement from September 2008 that it would continue its Affordable Housing Initiative until March 2014.

 

FRAPRU is also disappointed that the government has been deaf to the requests for increased financial assistance from groups working with the homeless. 



One F-35 = 6,400 social housing units

 

François Saillant is outraged that the Harper government is cutting all the amounts budgeted for housing rights, while it is still pushing forward with its plan to purchase 65 F-35 fighter planes. "If the cost of purchase and maintenance for the F-35's is indeed $29.3 billion, as now seems to be the case, this means that one single plane costs the same as building 6,400 new social housing units, at the current price of Quebec's AccèsLogis program! That says a lot about Stephen Harper's sense of priorities!"

 

Last fall, FRAPRU organised many actions to denounce this choice by the Conservative government, including blocking the entrance to Lockheed Martin's Montreal plant - the US defence firm supplying the F-35 - in addition to the entrance of an office of the Department of National Defence in Ottawa.

 

- 30 -

 

For more information: 

François Saillant (514) 522-1010 or (514) 919-2843 (mobile)

Véronique Laflamme
Pour le FRAPRU
www.frapru.qc.ca <http://www.frapru.qc.ca/>