Valérie Plante: "We have to stop seeing housing as an expense

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante spoke at the Sommet Habitation 2022 housing summit about the importance of looking at housing as an investment rather than an expense. She noted that the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) has produced a model by-law for how to balance social, affordable and family housing, inviting all municipalities to adapt it to their reality.

“We have to stop seeing housing as an expense — it’s an investment”
—Valérie Plante on the housing crisis

L’habitation, il faut arrêter de voir cela comme une dépense, c’est un investissement. #polmtl #SommetHabitation2022
— Valérie Plante (@Val_Plante) August 26, 2022

Valérie Plante is speaking at the Sommet Habitation 2022 housing summit

According to the CMM, 213,000 Montreal households have to spend 30% or more of their already-low income on housing, and 28,000 of them have filed valid applications with the local housing bureau. While construction and maintenance of social housing does not currently meet demand in the city, the National Housing Strategy (a long-term financing agreement between the municipal, provincial and federal governments) should provide a much-needed boost in the years to come.

A key to solving the housing crisis is the fact that municipalities “now have the power to act in order to regulate the supply of social, affordable or family housing during the realization of new residential projects on their territory.” This is thanks to the inclusion by-law, a regulatory tool that allows municipalities to “set the rules when signing an agreement by requiring construction permit applicants to make a contribution in the form of monetary payment, land or housing.”

For more on the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, please visit the CMM website.

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