Two prominent Toronto housing advocates are calling on newly-appointed Housing Minister Nate Erskine-Smith to put the federal government back in the business of building homes.
In 2023, Erskine-Smith campaigned on a promise to create a provincially-owned construction agency to build affordable housing while running in the Ontario Liberal Party leadership race. He ultimately lost, coming a close second behind Bonnie Crombie.
But now that he’s in charge of housing, the Toronto MP should bring that proposed policy to the federal level, says Eric Lombardi, the president of More Neighbours Toronto, and Alejandra Ruiz Vargas, the East York chair of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
The suggestion may not be out of the realm of possibility, even as the new minister may not have a lot of time to enact new policies.
In a statement to TorontoToday, Erskine-Smith said he plans to treat “housing as a home first and investment second” and intends to unveil “the most ambitious housing policies we can have.”
This includes better support for community housing and bringing an end to exclusionary zoning — which prevents certain types of housing, like low-rise apartment buildings, from being built in certain areas.
But Erskine-Smith did not comment directly on a proposed public housing agency.
As president of More Neighbours Toronto — a community organization focused on solving the housing crisis by building more homes — Lombardi said there are gaps the private sector will never be able to fill, and that’s where the government should step in.
He pointed to Austria and Singapore as examples of how to do public housing right. About 60 per cent of residents in Austria’s capital of Vienna live in affordable social housing, per the Guardian. In Singapore, about 70 per cent of all housing units are built by the government and the city-state has a 90 per cent home ownership rate, according to the Canadian Press.
If Canada were to create its own publicly-owned construction agency, Lombardi would like to see it set up in a way that allows it to be self-funded through rent and capital investments.
In this way, a public housing agency could be an “asset creator for the government, if it's managed well,” he said.
As for ACORN chair Ruiz Vargas, who ran against Erskine-Smith in 2021 as the NDP candidate for Beaches—East York, she believes creating a public builder will send a clear message that housing is not about profit.
“Now, housing is like a commodity,” she said, “but housing is a human right.”
Especially in a place like Canada, not having a roof over your head can mean the difference between life and death, she said. She pointed to social media reports that an unhoused woman in East York was found dead two days ago when temperatures dipped to -17 C. According to posts on X, the woman died near the Shoppers Drug Mart at Coxwell and Danforth Avenues.
Both Ruiz Vargas and Lombardi agreed Erskine-Smith likely doesn’t have much time to enact sweeping changes to housing policy in Canada. It appears an election will be coming sooner rather than later — the Conservative Party has already attempted a number of non-confidence votes to oust the ruling Liberal government, and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced Friday he will put forth his own non-confidence vote.
Lombardi said he was “personally quite happy” to see Erskine-Smith given the housing file in the latest cabinet shuffle, and he’s disappointed the Toronto MP will have “potentially limited time” to make an impact.
That said, the circumstances around Erskine-Smith also present an opportunity to enact “necessary but unpopular [policies] from which a legacy can be built,” he said.
“This is actually the best time you have to be bold, because the consequences for boldness just aren't going to bite as badly,” Lombardi said. “It's a chance to do something you'll be proud of. And I hope he does.”
For decades, the federal government was a major home builder in Canada. During the Second World War, the federal government created the Wartime Housing Corporation, a Crown corporation that built over 45,000 homes in over eight years, according to a Parliamentary Research Branch report.
Funding for public housing persisted through the 60s, 70s and 80s until the Conservative government under Brian Mulroney axed the federal co-operative housing program in 1992. The program had built over 60,000 homes for low to middle income families.
