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Home Blog Housing Not much of a national housing summit today without the feds at the table…

Michael Shapcott

Not much of a national housing summit today without the feds at the table…

The federal decision to boycott today’s national housing summit in St Johns, NL (the second time in two years that the federal housing minister has refused to meet with provincial and territorial counterparts) left the remaining summiteers without much to say or do. There is an urgent need for housing ministers to complete the process they launched in September of 2005 to create a new national affordable housing framework, but it’s hard to conclude an agreement when a key party won’t even come to the table. Click here for background info from the Wellesley Institute on today’s summit. All eyes have now shifted to Alberta to see whether the Tory government there can convince its federal cousins to join in the long overdue discussions to finalize a new housing plan for Canada. The official communiqué is here.

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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.