87,000 families desperate for affordable housing deserve better than “I don’t know” from Wynne government: NDP

QUEEN’S PARK — Cheri DiNovo, NDP GTA issues critic and long-time housing advocate, blasted the Liberal government today for cutting $86 million from Toronto’s social housing budget. 

“The Liberals can talk about being ‘progressive’ till they’re blue-in-the-face, but no progressive government would cut $86 million dollars from Toronto’s social housing budget,” said DiNovo, MPP for Parkdale-High Park. 

In 2013, the Liberal government cancelled the Toronto Pooling Compensation fund, a fund created to help the City of Toronto cope with its disproportionate social housing burden.

Over five years, these Liberal cuts will mean ahalf-billion-dollar funding gap, DiNovo explained, leading to service cuts and even longer wait-lists for affordable housing in the city, which now runs between 10 and 12 years.

“The Liberals are telling Toronto: Forget about fixing the repair backlog, forget about easing the strain on emergency shelters. And, worst of all, forget about the 87,000 families who are desperately waiting for affordable housing,” said DiNovo 

Though she was asked directly by DiNovo to defend such deep, real cuts to social housing, the Premier refused to answer. Wynne handed the question to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing who admitted he didn’t know how the city intended to deal with the province’s massive cut: “Toronto was projecting a shortfall this year of some $86 million, and they may have decided to tag that to something. I don’t know.”