A number of social issues are clouding the future of people in West Quebec. Besides the need for a new hospital and better medical care, housing prices and lack of housing accessibility are a dead weight on the aspirations of young people.
Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have reneged on their responsibility to ensure that housing is a human right and needs to be kept as part of the social contract with citizens in Canada. Instead, they have enacted policies that passed the torch of housing to market forces.
Market forces have one over-arching goal: making profits. The needs of first time home-buyers, senior citizens and their special needs, and families with children, are not the focus of people who see housing as an investment for profit making.
The Pontiac NDP is hosting a round table January 14, at 2 pm on housing, at UQO, on Tache Blvd in Hull. The session promises to be a much needed and
interesting event, open to the public.
Hope to see you there.
Carl Hager
Gatineau / Aylmer