Feature
Cities Ready to Face Canada’s Housing Affordability Challenge Provincial governments need to step up to partner with local and federal governments By Sean Meyer, Municipal World in FCM, Housing, Leadership
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anada’s big city mayors are a committed to ending chronic homelessness, says Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson. But to achieve this goal, the provinces must be partners with both local governments, and their federal counterparts.
Iveson was speaking during a media conference on the opening day of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) 2021 annual conference.
Cities Need Provincial Cooperation Iveson is chair of FCM’s Big City Mayors’ Caucus. He described the differing approaches of Ottawa and many provincial governments as being “night and day.” The federal government doesn’t have a direct, constitution relationship with local governments. But, Iveson said, the federal government goes out of its way to talk with municipalities as partners. They see municipalities as an order of government and treats them with respect at every turn. However, he added that many provincial governments do not. “Even where we (local and federal governments) disagree … there is active and meaningful engagement and con-
IHM News • Summer 2021
versation. We can at least all understand where everybody’s coming from,” Iveson said. “I’m afraid, not just in Alberta, but for many mayors in our caucus across the country, in a number of other provinces, local governments are not treated with that kind of respect. And that is to the detriment of the progress that we could be making. Canadians should be very disappointed that that’s the case.” Iveson said provinces that get the value of local governments will outperform their counterparts. And so, “a friendly competition and the law of natural selection” will prevail. But it is to the detriment of the residents of the provinces and cities where that respect is not the same.
Cities to Lead Economic Recovery The mayors kicked off the conference with a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. This conversation focused on maximizing the recovery value of new investments in housing. The mayors agreed recent federal commitments to permanent housing is an important first step. In light of those investments, and other emergency supports, Iveson said cities are ready to put this new funding to work.
He also lauded federal investments in public transit. Transit expansion, he said, will serve as a national recovery centerpiece. He also trumpeted the doubling of the Gas Tax Fund transfer for a year. Together, this means municipalities can deliver “more job-creating, lifeenhancing infrastructure projects for recovery.” During the media conference, Iveson addressed the timeline for ending homelessness. Iveson said the mayors want that timeline to be specific, achievable, and deliverable. Even so, he was quick to add there is no desire to “draw a line in the sand” for achieving that particular date. “Consistent with our respectful working relationship with the government of Canada, we would want to land that number together,” Iveson said. “The point is we need to land that number because a goal of ending [homelessness] without a specific timeline is good, but it’s not good enough.”
Provincial Support Will Save Money Iveson reiterated his frustration with many of the country’s provincial Continued on page 4
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