Quebec and Ottawa have reached an agreement in principle on housing that will free up $900 million in unused federal funds, Radio-Canada has learned.
The minister responsible for housing in Quebec, France-Élaine Duranceau, quickly confirmed on the X network that she was very happy to have reached an agreement with Quebec for Quebec [le ministre fédéral du Logement] Sean Fraser on the allocation of funds from the FACL [Fonds pour accélérer la construction de logements].
For his part, Minister Sean Fraser announced that this agreement comes at a time when we must do everything we can to solve the housing crisis.
The two MPs stated that the details of this agreement will be announced soon.
The Quebec premier issued an ultimatum to his federal counterpart on the issue on October 5. François Legault said he wanted to reach an agreement with Justin Trudeau’s government by October 13 at the latest, which is Friday.
At a summit on homelessness on September 15, the Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ) decried the lack of agreement on this $900 million amount.
Today, no municipality can submit a project as we wait for an agreement between the Government of Quebec and the Government of Canada to ensure that the amounts can finally be released. […] There are municipalities in all other Canadian provinces [déjà] Access to these amounts, explained the president of the UMQ and mayor of Varennes, Martin Damphousse.