Carney cites her award-winning book on encampments. She's eyeing his plan to end homelessness

详细摘要

One of Canada's leading authors on homelessness says the prime minister’s plan to end it within 10 years is an "ambitious goal" that has potential, but won't actually go all the…

One of Canada's leading authors on homelessness says the prime minister's plan to end it is an "ambitious goal" that has potential, but won't actually go all the way.

Prime Minister Mark Carney introduced his government's second budget last week, which features a big headline promise: end homelessness in 10 years.

Governments sometimes tease big pledges in the run up to tabling a budget. That wasn't the case with this year's signature pledge, but there was an Easter egg that could have pointed to this new policy focus.

Earlier this year, Carney told the Globe and Mail that he was reading Encampment by Maggie Helwig, which won this year's Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing.

Encampment tells the story of Helwig's activism and effort to keep her Toronto churchyard open to those in need. The award jury called the book "a necessary, on-the-ground view of Canada's homelessness crisis."

November's budget went on to propose a $11.2-billion cash injection to tackle homelessness, one of this year's largest line items.

Carney is not the first politician in Canada's history to set this target, but with Canadians facing an escalating affordability and housing availability crisis, the stakes are high.

Helwig gave her assessment of Carney's plan to CBC's chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.

"I think that the commitments which have been made are serious commitments. They are constructive commitments. They are not at a scale which would end homelessness," Helwig said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live.

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