The federal government announced it’s 10-year, 40 billion dollar national housing strategy Thursday afternoon in Ottawa.
While it sounds good, Cowichan-Langford-Malahat M.P., Alistair MacGregor says because 90% of the funding is backloaded to 2019, affordable housing in the Cowichan Valley, especially in areas where the need is dire, will either remain the same or deteriorate.
Cowichan Tribes is experiencing a housing shortage and MacGregor says Indigenous communities having to wait even longer is frustrating.
He says the City of Duncan has one of the highest poverty rates in the province and the money is needed now, not in two years.
MacGregor says the 40 billion dollar price tag is very misleading.
He says the federal funding is coming from a number of different sources, not just the Trudeau Government.
Eleven billion dollars in funding was announced eight months ago, the strategy includes private sector money and funding that has to be contributed by the provinces and territories.
