Industry partners meet with vice-president of Montreal's executive committee
The Association de la construction du Québec (ACQ), the Association des professionnels de la construction et de l'habitation du Québec (APCHQ), the Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec (CORPIQ) and the Institut de développement urbain du Québec (IDU) met with Benoit Dorais, Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal, to discuss the municipality's vision for housing. In this area, the City of Montreal shares the view that it is necessary to complete an objective inventory to lay the foundations for an action plan with all players: the municipalities, the provincial government, the federal government, the community sector, the private sector and civil society.
"Quebec municipalities are the front line in dealing with the housing crisis, which is also combined with the mobility crisis and the climate crisis. However, they cannot be the only ones to tackle it. We applaud the mobilization of housing industry partners, who are responding with tangible solutions. The issues of densification, investment in community infrastructure and social and affordable housing, and the challenges facing the construction market call for concerted action by all governments and civil society players. Montreal will continue to lead the way in implementing solutions to ensure the city's affordability for generations to come," says Benoit Dorais, vice-president of the executive committee, responsible for housing, real estate strategy and legal affairs at the City of Montreal.
"Like many cities in Quebec, the City of Montreal is experiencing a major housing shortage, with a 2% vacancy rate. Faced with this situation, the city has chosen to act by focusing on a global approach that goes beyond buildings and takes into account people and their living environment. We believe that these are interesting directions to take to stem the crisis," emphasize the spokespersons for housing industry partners Guillaume Houle of the ACQ, Maxime Rodrigue of the APCHQ, Marc-André Plante of the CORPIQ and Isabelle Melançon of the IDU.
The need for concerted action
At a time when the housing shortage is responsible for soaring rental housing prices and difficult access to home ownership, the only way to reduce overheating in a sustainable way is to increase supply. Housing industry partners are looking forward to working with Quebec's municipal leaders to find solutions that will further stimulate housing construction and review the many mechanisms that are holding back housing starts.
" To improve the supply situation and establish a long-term vision that will enable us to emerge from the crisis, we believe that all players in the housing sector must roll up their sleeves and look in the same direction to find solutions to increase and accelerate the development of new housing units. We believe that the voice and role of municipalities in this regard are essential," say the industry partners.
Towards a national housing action plan
Given that the municipal sector is facing critical housing issues without a suitable source of funding, the partners believe that the various levels of government must jointly conduct an objective examination of the challenges and issues that are responsible for the crisis in the housing sector.
To address the housing shortage in all regions of Quebec, the four organizations maintain that this joint diagnosis is essential to enable government authorities at all levels to draw up a genuine action plan in which their respective actions will be complementary and coherent. Armed with these objective findings and this plan, government authorities will be able to bring together all the players, social and economic, to meet the housing challenge.
