Councillor Carr posts questions for MP roundtable meeting

Councillor Paul Carr, B.A.
City of Belleville
[email protected]
613-847-0645 (C)

Special Council Meeting – Roundtable with local Members of Parliament

On Monday March 16, 2026 there will be a Special Council meeting with Member of Parliament Chris Malette (Bay of Quinte) and Member of Parliament Shelby Kramp-Neuman (Hastings Lennox and Addington Tyendinaga). Unfortunately, members of Council were not consulted on the meeting date and I am unable to attend due to a pre-arranged commitment. However, the following questions were submitted to the City Clerk and will be posed to our Members of Parliament at the meeting. I have asked Councillor Brown to be my proxy on these questions.

The lack of federal funding in the areas of homelessness and social housing places more burden on property taxpayers to fund programs that are more aligned with federal and provincial government priorities. This in turn can contribute to housing unaffordability for residential property taxpayers, perpetuating a problem when it comes to homelessness and the need for social housing availability.

1. Is the Government of Canada seriously committed to preventing homelessness, addressing the needs of those that are already homeless and helping communities with realistic and sustainable funding for affordable and social housing? If so, what can you commit for the City of Belleville and by extension Hastings County on these issues?
2. Homelessness continues to increase in the City of Belleville. Funding under Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy has not increased to meet the community needs. What steps are you taking to increase funding for our most vulnerable homeless citizens?
3. During the last two years of the National Housing Strategy (2026-2028) and the Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative (OPHI) housing allowance funding will gradually reduce and then end completely. Hastings County will need to consider the impact of the planned reductions on this Housing Allowance Program. What steps can you take to have the Government of Canada reverse this reduction and eventual complete funding loss?
4. Short funding windows makes long-term planning for repair, maintenance, program creation and sustainability with other partners extremely difficult. Why is funding for only 2 or 4 year allocations? What steps can you take to address this?
5. Federal block funding funds our non-profit housing providers and continues to decrease as the program comes to a close in 2029. The result of this will be a loss of approximately one million in yearly funding. What steps can you take to reverse this funding decrease and eventual loss? What do you think is an acceptable funding amount to address the need in our community?

Municipal governments do not have the funding capacity through property taxes to address homelessness and our social housing needs. Municipalities need a robust commitment from both federal and provincial governments to address these issues head on. For more information – https://www.amo.on.ca/policy/health-emergency-and-social-services/homelessness-crisis-ontario-continues-worsen. Please join City Council’s voice by contacting your Member of Parliament and advocate for a sustainable investment for the vulnerable and those with severe housing needs in our community.

A similar Special Council Meeting with our Members of Provincial Parliament will be convened in early April. I will post my questions closer to that date.

Regards,

[Signature]

Paul Carr, Councillor
City of Belleville – City Hall
169 Front Street
Belleville, Ontario K8N 2Y8