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Michael Shapcott

BC housing dollars don't match their promises

The Government of British Columbia promised in its Throne Speech on Monday that it would be ramping up spending on housing and homelessness – and those words caused a flurry of excitement in Calgary as almost 700 delegates to the national housing and homelessness conference began to gather. After all, on a per capita basis, BC has a bad record among Canadian provinces when it comes to housing spending, according to Statistics Canada.

But the BC Budget delivered later in the day on Tuesday failed to deliver on those housing promises. In fact, the housing spending is slated to shrunk in BC over the next few years, even though housing insecurity and homelessness are deep and persistent in Vancouver, the Lower Mainland and many other parts of the province. The spending estimates for housing are $454 milllion in fiscal 2008; $385.5 million in 2009 (upcoming budget year); $380 million in 2010 and $379.9 in 2011.

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Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott is Director, Affordable Housing and Social Innovation at Wellesley Institute. Michael has worked extensively in Toronto, in many parts of Canada, nationally and internationally on social innovation, the non-profit sector, civic engagement, housing and housing rights, poverty, social exclusion, urban health and health equity. He is recognized as one of Canada’s leading community-based housing and homelessness experts. He is currently on secondment to the Princes' Charities Canada.

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.