NDDN Committee Report

BUILD THE HOMES

This Supplemental Report reflects the views of the Conservative Members of Parliament who serve on the Standing Committee on National Defence (“NDDN”): MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman), MP Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke), MP Dean Allison (Niagara West) and MP Don Stewart (Toronto-St. Paul’s).

Introduction:

As referenced in the report, the study examined the accessibility and affordability of housing for members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), as well as other challenges related to relocation. CAF members who must relocate their families face numerous challenges associated with finding housing that is affordable and in suitable condition, in addition to finding health care, childcare, education, and employment for their family members.

The most important message conveyed to the committee is that the existing supply of housing is insufficient in both quantity and quality to adequately fulfill the demand by CAF members. The rising cost of housing across Canada, coupled with a 4.2% hike in rent for Canadian Forces Housing Authority (CFHA) units in 2024-25, make affordable housing increasingly difficult for CAF members. While surveys and internal data claim that most units are in good condition and satisfactory to their residents, witnesses raised doubts in the accuracy of this information.

Observations:

This report failed to adequately address how the affordability and living conditions of CFHA housing will be improved.

In the Defence Policy Update (DPU), the Government briefing acknowledged the need for more and improved housing for our military members and their families. Unfortunately, the DPU lacks the urgency required to build the homes and ensure all 6,700 Canadian Armed Forces members on the waitlist have a place to live. For example, Annex A of the DPU ostensibly shows an investment of $295-million in housing for Canadian Armed Forces Personnel, but no funding for the first two fiscal years and only $7-million from 2026-2027 to 2028-2029.[1]  

According to testimony from Department of National Defence officials, the armed forces are approximately 6,700 housing units short given the current waitlist. Despite this, only 38 housing units were built in the previous two years. As a result of the shortage, the committee was informed that CAF members were being forced to “live rough”, including instances of couch surfing, sleeping in cars, living in campers, or being forced to live in precarious domiciles.

Based upon the Liberals’ own projected funding envelope for military housing, there is only $44,000 available per residential housing unit to build the housing stock currently required by our troops. This clearly demonstrates a lack of political will and urgency on the part of the Liberal government. Conservatives remain concerned that the current funding levels for Canadian Armed Forces housing is inadequate and negligent. If this is allowed to continue, the housing situation will worsen, and further exasperate the recruitment and retention crisis.

Canada is suffering from a housing affordability crisis that is driving up the cost of homes on and off CAF bases. This affordability crisis is intensified by increased costs imposed by the government, such as rent hikes and higher taxation. The federal carbon tax increased by 23% in the same month that CFHA rents were hiked, imposing excessive costs on CAF members.

Therefore, we fully support Recommendation 1 to reverse the rent hikes, and additionally recommend:  

That the Government of Canada take immediate action to exempt the federal carbon tax for any associated costs relating to housing in Canadian Forces Housing Authority (CFHA) units that impacts overall rental costs.

Existing mechanisms for measuring and tracking the condition of CFHA units do not accurately reflect the living conditions of CAF members. In April 2023, 76.2% of CFHA units were classified as being in “Average” condition according to their own assessment. However, when asked about the prevalence of issues such as “paint peeling, lead paint identification, asbestos identification that takes years to remediate, broken faucets, [and] broken utilities,” Sergeant (Retired) Christopher Banks described these conditions as “typical.”

The Department of National Defence’s Serge Tremblay described the process of assessing military housing units with an analogy of a classroom environment. He said, “If a certain number of students have a grade that is below average, it does not necessarily mean they are failing.” However, the opposite could also be true, and therefore “Average” becomes a relative term and could mean in poor condition, as described in the report by Alyssa Truong.

Therefore, we fully support Recommendation 3 in the report and additionally recommend:

That the Government of Canada develop a new set of fixed metrics to evaluate and classify the state of each military housing unit based on private housing market standards.

Conclusion:

In providing our observations and supplementary recommendations, the Conservative committee members thank the House of Commons analysts and clerks for their hard work in adding to the completion of this report. This supplemental report is by no means a way to cast doubt on their work but rather to highlight the shortcomings of the report adopted by a majority of committee members.

Respectfully,

James Bezan, MP Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman

Cheryl Gallant, MP Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke

Dean Allison, MP Niagara West

Don Stewart, MP Toronto-St. Paul’s