Vancouver Sun, June 13, 2022 (With comments from BCNPHA CEO Jill Atkey.)
Two years ago, NDP MP Jenny Kwan protested that the federal Liberals were directing less than one per cent of their social housing budget to B.C., despite the province being home to 11 per cent of the nation’s population.
The stark imbalance has improved since Kwan aired her complaints.
But the Vancouver East NDP MP says British Columbians, who struggle with some of the costliest housing on the continent and high homelessness rates, still do not receive their legitimate share of social-housing funds. The vast majority continues to go to vote-rich Ontario.
“It was shocking to learn that in January, 2020, B.C. was so severely shortchanged by the federal government for our fair share of social housing and shelter funding from the National Housing Strategy’s Co-Investment Fund, the only federal social housing program at the time,” Kwan said.
“Since exposing that B.C. only got 0.5 per cent of the funding, I’m glad to report that more funds have begun to flow to B.C.”