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MacGregor stresses time can’t be wasted until the next election to alleviate housing crisis

Funding needs to be rolled out now, urges Cowichan-Malahat-Langford MP
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Cowichan-Malahat-Langford MP Alistair MacGregor. (Photo by Bernard Thibodeau)

NDP MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) hosted two town hall meetings to discuss the National Housing Strategy during Homelessness Action Week.

“The housing crisis in Canada requires urgent action now. The lack of adequate and affordable housing was clearly confirmed at my town halls,” said MacGregor. “It’s unacceptable, in a country as wealthy as ours, that so many people are desperate for affordable housing.”

Concerned panelists Victoria Cool Aid Society’s CEO Kathy Stinson, Greater Victoria Housing Society’s Director of Real Estate Development James Munro, MLA Doug Routley (Nanaimo-North Cowichan), Hiiye`yu Lelum Society’s Executive Director Debbie Williams, United Way Central & Northern Vancouver Island’s Executive Director Signy Madden and Cowichan Housing Association’s Executive Director Terri Mattin also presented at either the Langford or Cowichan town hall meetings and talked about the desperate need for housing in their regions.

“Fixing this housing crisis is a top priority for me and the NDP,” stated MacGregor. “That is why we used our first opposition day of the fall sitting to call on the Liberal government to acknowledge the urgent need and immediately bring forward 50 per cent of the funding attached to the government’s housing strategy.”

MacGregor will be publishing a public report from the town hall meetings and delivering it directly to Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development who is responsible for the National Housing Strategy. MacGregor encouraged all constituents to submit feedback to be included in his report by the end of October.

“Canadians cannot afford to wait until after the next election for this crisis to be solved, said MacGregor. “The lack of affordable housing is directly tied to decades of successive funding cuts by Liberal and Conservative governments and that is why we are asking for half the funding promised in the National Housing Strategy to be rolled out now.”



Don Bodger

About the Author: Don Bodger

I've been a part of the newspaper industry since 1980 when I began on a part-time basis covering sports for the Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle.
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