Election 2011

On March 25, 2011, The finding of contempt in Parliament and motion of no confidence triggered a spring election, and with it all of the bills in progress (including Bill C-304) have been lost. While we are hopeful that a new Parliament will see the return of Bill C-304, and its eventual passing, the Red Tents Campaign has drafted the following Platform detailing what we feel are the immediate needs of the government in responding to Canada's housing crisis. Over the coming months we will be asking federal candidates whether or not they support this platform, and what they will be doing personally to make Housing a Right in Canada.  

Red Tents Campaign Platform 2010-2011

Canada has ratified numerous international human rights instruments that not only recognize the right to housing, but also create an obligation on the Government to take steps for the progressive realization of these human rights with the maximum of its available resources. In recent review by United Nations’ authorities, Canada’s continuing failure to incorporate these international legal standards into Canadian domestic law has been noted with growing concern, including – most recently – the May 2006 period review of Canada’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The goal of the Red Tent Campaign is that the Government of Canada recognise in policy and funding the right to housing in our country.

Positions and Demands:

1. The Red Tent Campaign calls for the adoption of a National Housing Strategy (as proposed in Bill C-304) as an important step towards meeting our responsibility to create a right to housing in Canada.

• Bill C-304 is as an opportunity to bring Canada in line with all of the other G8 countries by creating a National Housing Strategy which respects provincial jurisdictions. This was one of the key recommendations made by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on how Canada could meet its obligation to recognize housing as a right under the U.N. Covenant on Social Economic and Cultural Rights.

2. The Red Tent Campaign asks the federal government to protect the 600 000 existing social housing units across Canada.

• The federal government must commit to supporting social housing in Canada by maintaining federal subsidies in existing social housing units to ensure that these units remain accessible to the low-income households for whom they have been built.

3. The Red Tent Campaign demands recurrent federal funding of at least 2 billion dollars a year for the construction of new social housing units.

• Another key element to the realization of housing as a right in Canada is the continued and long term investment in social housing. To respond to the housing crisis in Canada and to do so at the maximum of its available resources, the federal government should increase its annual investment in social housing by $2 billion with further increases as needed.

Get Involved! - We need your help in getting our platform and the message of safe, secure, and affordable housing out during the election campaign. Things are happening on the ground all the time. To lend a hand, or learn more about our campaign, send an e-mail at housingnow@redtents.org