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Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.

Home Blog Housing Powerful day on Parliament Hill: National housing plan inches closer to reality

Michael Shapcott

Powerful day on Parliament Hill: National housing plan inches closer to reality

A dynamic afternoon of testimony today from a series of expert witnesses (including the Wellesley Institute’s Michael Shapcott, has helped moved Bill C-304 – the draft legislation that sets out a process to create a new national affordable housing strategy – a step closer to reality. The Assembly of First Nations, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Federation of Canadian Apartment Associations, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and the Wellesley Institute all spoke in favour of a national housing plan. The bill passed second reading in the Commons with the support of the NDP, Liberals, Bloc and a lone Conservative. It will receive detailed, clause-by-clause review next Tuesday, and will then return to the House for third and final vote; before heading off to the Senate for ratification there. With the unanimous support of every expert witness at today’s hearing, the bill appears poised to move forward.

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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.