Homelessness: Our Shame

Patrick Gossage • April 18, 2023

What could be more hopeless for a person in the GTA than having nothing – no home, no shelter, nothing to eat, no family or friends?

While, any night in this urban area, most of us live in comfort, over 11500 of our fellow citizens are homeless. Last winter hundreds were turned away from overcrowded shelters every night.  Nearly 200 homeless people die either in city facilities, living rough outside or in makeshift tents. Now Toronto is turning homeless youth out of hotel rooms into the street and its budget problems threaten to find shelters further reduced next winter. In the wider GTA, housing for the homeless is so overcrowded or unavailable that they go downtown where at least they can get a meal if not a bed.


One seventy-year-old man, recently turned out of his apartment, wandered the streets downtown. Nowhere to go, getting colder. he went into the emergency department at St. Michael’s hospital and amazingly a social worker greeted him and found him a bed and a meal. They see hundreds of homeless people every year. Emergency departments are last resorts as are riding on all-night streetcars, staying in all-night coffee shops if allowed, subway stations, stairwells. It is hard to fathom how desperate these sad people are. 


One only has to consider the grim situation of shelters with unwashed men lined up close together in rows of cots with no privacy to understand why many homeless people prefer living rough or in tents. Only the best run shelter facilities welcome couples or women. Only 13% of shelters in Canada welcome women who are often victims of partner abuse.

 

In York region dozens of homeless people out of the approximately 1,500 who are homeless on any night, live in tents in its many woodlands. Surveys have shown that these people, living outdoors or in encampments tend to have a greater degree of mental illness or addiction than those in shelters. They are looked after by LOFT which operates an outreach van providing a range of urgent-care services seven days a week for the homeless in the York Region.


Toronto has been much less welcoming and used police to clear three park encampments in the summer of 2021 with what was seen as unnecessary force. Former Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam, whose ward encompasses Moss Park where another encampment feared being cleared violently, said the City needs to rely on less police officers and more social workers with future encampment operations. One of the sad effects of forced removal is that residents often lose what few possessions they have. 


A recent Court ruling in Kitchener showed that for the first time homeless people occupying public land have rights too. Justice Michael J. Valente of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario found the encampment bylaws covering Kitchener, Ontario, violated people’s constitutional right to “life, liberty, and security of the person.” The bylaw violated the Charter rights of the residents in the absence of sufficient shelter spaces.” The Kitchener decision affirmed it’s not just about how many spaces are available in the city, but also about whether those spaces truly accommodate the needs of people experiencing homelessness. Mayors, including Tom Taylor of Newmarket, who is openly anti-tent, would do well to look at this ruling.


The homeless crisis is really an affordable housing crisis that was not even mentioned in the recent Ontario and federal budgets. In the recent inflation, interest rate and affordability crisis, policy makers have focused on making homes more affordable for middle class people and virtually ignored the real plight of low-income would-be owners and renters. Premier Doug Ford’s promise to build 1.5 million new homes in the $800,00 price range will do little for the underhoused. Leilani Farha, the global director of Make The Shift, an international group that promotes the right to housing, told the New York Times Ian Austen that Canada has one of the worst records globally when it comes to homelessness.


Curiously the most devastating cuts in federal funding for affordable housing came when the Jean Chrétien Liberal undertook a substantial welfare state restructuring, with the 1995 federal budget under then Finance Minister, Paul Martin.  By 1993, the federal government completely withdrew financial support for building new social or public housing. Investments were made in public housing beginning from the late 1940s, peaking in the 1960s. These involved cost-sharing arrangements between the federal and provincial governments. Between 1973 and 1992, the federal government partnered to create approximately 236,000 non-profit and co-operative units were created over those two decades. This golden age has not returned. 


The Current National Housing Strategy (NHS) is an ambitious, 10-year plan to invest over $72 billion to give more Canadians a place to call home. Since its launch in 2017, the government has committed over $26.5 billion to support the creation of over 106,100 units of affordable and the repair of over 254,600. We await the evidence of this major increase in truly affordable housing.


That homelessness is a much-ignored housing issue is undeniable. A 2021 York Region homelessness survey found unsurprisingly that one quarter (22%) of people reported being unable to pay rent/mortgage as one of the reasons for their homelessness in 2021 compared to 14% in 2018.


Few municipalities have tackled homelessness head on as well as Ottawa. The city’s street outreach services and shelter services have both shifted to a robust housing-focused approach, resulting in a 19% reduction in chronic homelessness. Ottawa’s 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan, updated in 2020, requires that 10% of new affordable housing units are supportive housing units. The City’s shift over the past decade from a traditional shelter model to the creation of more supportive housing units to address chronic homelessness has led to the creation of close to 800 supportive units across the city since 2006. Ottawa’s Built for Zero chronic homelessness baseline was set in January 2020. Since then three supportive housing buildings and several scattered units have been built, adding a total of 95 units to Ottawa’s supportive housing inventory. The success is based on the formation of Housing First teams.


Many of the public who do not understand that homeless people could be their neighbours oppose new projects to house the growing numbers of homeless in the GTA.  Aurora residents came out in force to a public planning meeting last month to oppose a Housing York proposal to build a new 55-unit transitional and emergency facility at 14452 Yonge St., meant to replace Blue Door’s aging Porter Place. This is one of the rare new purpose-built projects for the homeless in the GTA.


It is a shocking over 10 years wait for the 83,000 individuals and families needing rent geared to income housing in Toronto. Solving the homeless problem with new housing will not answer the growing crisis in any reasonable time period.


There is one organization with breakthrough thinking on a policy that could get homeless and vulnerable people into housing. In January, a press release made dramatic suggestions: the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) called on the federal government to take urgent action to support low-income Canadians with a new proposal for a Homelessness Prevention and Housing Benefit (HPHB). The benefit would provide immediate rental relief to up to 385,000 households at imminent risk of homelessness, help over 50,000 people leave homelessness, and reduce pressure on Canada’s overwhelmed homeless systems while saving all levels of government money by reducing demand on public systems like health care.  This is a potential solution that does not rely on a long wait for grand new affordable housing construction plans. It should be looked at.  


As we enjoy warmer weather and the homeless can once again be more comfortable under bridges and in the ravines and woods, we still have not as a society come to terms with the social and health costs of these thousands of human beings for which we seem to have so little sympathy. It is a shame. 

Patrick Gossage Insider Political Views

Two Opposites – Mark Carney and Donald Trump

By Patrick Gossage • March 12, 2026
One of the major differences between these two men is that Carney understands the value of well-thought-out strategy, abundantly clear in his Davos speech, which laid out one for middle powers to deal with the end of a rules-based international order and the rise of hegemony. Trump's lack of strategic understanding is clear in his bumbling attempts to justify the billion-dollar-a-day Iran war. His overall tactic of “flooding the zone” – mounting a new initiative or major announcement every day, or even several times a day to ensure press and opposition can never catch up. This tactic has served him well – confusing the world and his would-be opponents into submission under a valley of activity and harsh opinions from the leader of the world. Contrast this approach to leadership from Carney. He is systematically building a nation less dependent on US trade by travelling the world building new alliances and trading partners. And in the scare of Australia giving substance to his idea of alliances with middle powers. All laid out in the Davos speech. It is instructive to appreciate how much Trump was irritated by the Davos speech. Carney got a standing ovation; Trump’s rambling lengthy diatribe did not. He won’t soon forget being so upstaged. He surely recognized an intellectual power he could never match. Carney is a realist and pragmatic when he stated recently “We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.” He is dealing with the world that is being reshaped by an irrational power-mad president, a world the powerful Stephen Miller said “that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world.” Does Carney sometimes err on the side of supporting Trump likely to ensure that critical talks on free trade and tariffs have some chance of finding a sympathetic ear? Yes; first he seemed to fully support Trump’s war with Iran. He later made his support more nuanced, saying Trump’s actions were against the rules-based international order. He now says we will not get involved unless a NATO ally is threatened. But generally, Carney is highly rational in contrast to Trump’s self-centered irrationality. Take Trump’s bizarre ill-informed letter to the Prime Minister of Norway, who had no role in deciding if he got the Nobel Peace Prize: “I no longer feel obligated to think purely of Peace (he subsequently engaged in an ever expanding war against Iran). He then reiterated his demand for “complete and Total Control, of Greenland. Thank you!”. His late-night rants, complete with caps, on social media show a mind out of control. Thay are dutifully reported on US news media and often astonish with their non sequiturs and nastiness. One of his more unpresidential quotes came as he fingered White House drapes: “I chose these myself. I always liked gold." The big question for Canadians who are more and more disillusioned with the antics of the President: could these two opposite ever sit down and do a deal that works for Canada. The two do text, and Carney has admitted that in private Trump does listen. But there is also evidence that the trade people in the White House do not like Canada, and as Trump has said, we owe our very existence to the US. And we are “difficult”. They have said that the current trade deal is not good for the US and could be trashed entirely and -deals with Mexico and Canada could be separate and the current trilateral deal may be dead.  Canada was at the brink of reducing the heavy sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum, and lumber when Premier Ford’s unfortunate ads during the Rose Bowl that featured President Reagan speaking against the usefulness of Tariffs led To Trump suspending talks. They only recently resumed. So can our world-renowned businessman and banker hope to sit down with the unpredictable and unstable President and cut a deal? Some hope that if we extend talks, the President, weakened by the midterms, the bad economic fallout from an unpopular war, and the fragmentation of the MAGA movement may be easier to deal with. On the other hand he may badly need a “win,” bullying big concessions out of Canada and reaping so-cabled benefits from a weaker free trade deal. There is a scenario where Trump gets a black eye if Carney simply walks away with the conviction, perhaps easily shared with an increasingly nationalistic and confident Canada that “no deal is better than a bad deal.” In any case, what a decisive and challenging future we face with Canada at play. Can Carney win for Canada against his opposite by losing a deal?"

A New Canada to Fight for Our Survival

By Patrick Gossage • December 29, 2025
There has been nothing like the mobilization of our country since we went to war against Hitler “for King and Country.” Now we are mobilizing in a new war against Trump’s depredations with renewed patriotic fervour. Our building a resilient sovereignty against the word’s most irrational and powerful regime - who believe we have no right to exist - will require an enormous dedicated and concentrated effort to redefine our nation. . Make no mistake. We are not seen as important in Washington, a lesson I learned as the Minister of Information at our embassy in the Reagan years. Like Trump’s disparaging attitude to Justin Trudeau, Reagan had little use for his crusading father, Pierre Ytudeau. The difference is that with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney r Reagan actually became a key figure in establishing the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), signed in 1988. Ironically, it is precisely the success of this pact that led to 75% of our trade going to the US, a dangerous dependence which is now under extreme threat. The future of the successor to the FTA is at dtake. The US Canada Mexico Agreement (USMCA) is about to be renegotiated and is by no means secure. Bilateral trade discussions on the sectorial tariffs that are destroying our steel, automobile, aluminum and lumber industries were going well but were cancelled on October 23 after Trump, in a fit of pique was annoyed by Ontario TV ads using a Reagan clip to decry tariffs. Prime Minister Carney clings to the hope that these issues will be addressed in the context of the USMCA talks. They are supposed to begin in January. We live in hope. Make no mistake. Trump recently suggested that USMCA’s future was not certain. His strong belief that Canada would be better as a US state _ “and there would be no tariffs” – seems unshakeable. Perhaps the most striking evidence of what low repute Canada is held in the White House comes from Vice President Vance. He has publicly criticized Canada's our generous immigration policies, blaming them for the country's "stagnating" living standards and referring to our approach as "immigration insanity". Vance pointed to a chart from IceCap Asset Management showing that Canada's GDP per capita growth has fallen behind that of the U.S. and the U.K. in recent years. He argues this stagnation is a direct result of Canada's approach to immigration and not U.S. trade policies. He specifically targeted Canada's multiculturalism model, contrasting it with the U.S. "melting pot". Vance claimed that "no nation has leaned more into 'diversity is our strength’... immigration insanity “ than Canada". The White House recently released National Security Strategy (NSS) which also note how immigrants can destroy our democracies. Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist signaled this: “It cites activities by our sister European democracies that “undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence. “‘Should present trends continue,” it goes on, “the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less.” These views are totally inimical to Canadian values.  As is this, Trump’s most outrageous recent anti- immigrant outburst as reported by NBC : “For a second day in a row, President Donald Trump launched into a hate-filled rant against Somalia and Somali immigrants living in the US, saying they’ve “destroyed Minnesota” and “our country.” Minnesota, Trump said, is “a hellhole” right now. “The Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country.“ The NSC also can affect Canada in its focus on the Western hemisphere. an area to be dominated by US interests. The US will secure critical supply chains in its own interests; and insists on the right of the US to have access to “strategically important locations.” The US National Security Council is to identify strategic points and resources in the Western hemisphere with a view to their protection and joint development with regional partners. Obviously, Canada as a source of critical minerals, will be under US scrutiny. Some observers fear that Trump wants Canada to become a “vassal state”. A December Toronto Star editorial states coldly that “Thanks to Donald Trump, we know that nothing about our country is guaranteed anymore, not our sovereignty, our democracy, our prosperity.” We now know the Canadian policies standing in the way of a new USMCA agreement. US Trade representative Jamieson Greer said our online Streaming Act, which will make profitable US streaming services support Canadian programming is a major irritant as is our sacrosanct supply management regime for dairy and poultry products. These both are very difficult bargaining chips for Canada to play. Trump’s love affair with tariffs is unlikely to subside so Canadian products may continue to be frozen out of the US. Prime Minister Carney’s ambitious strategy of finding alternate markets for these may work. And his new policy framework for rebuilding a successful economy, major infrastructure projects and attracting important foreign investment is a significant redefinition of our national political priorities. He enjoys wide public support for his strategy which also receives good business and media support. There is already some optimism about the economy in 2026 - take Bank of Montreal’s recent outlook paper: “We’re looking for a stronger economy in 2026 than 2025. Consumer spending has helped prop up the economy. The “Buy Canadian” campaign has helped, and more people are travelling closer to home. Also, there’s no question that federal government spending has also supported economic growth. As we move into the latter part of the year—boosted by firmer economic growth and lower population growth—we expect the unemployment rate to fall in the second half. “Canada’s position in the trade dispute isn’t as bad as it appeared earlier in the year. The average Us tariff rate on imports of Canadian goods is between 6% and 7%, compared to the 17% rate the U.S. charges the rest of the world on average. (these rates are goods under the existing CUSMA) Sectorial tariffs are heavily focused on certain targeted industries, such as steel and aluminum, lumber, and auto imports and non-USMCA auto parts. These are important sectors, but they represent a relatively narrow slice of the economy. “ In addition there is good news on the overall trade front. Canada’s trade swung to a surplus of C$0.15 billion in September 2025 from a C$6.3 billion deficit the month before and well above expectations for a C$4.5 billion deficit, Exports rose 6.3 C$ 64.231 billion, the largest monthly increase since February. Nine of 11 product sections posted gains. Metal and non-metallic mineral product exports jumped 22.7% driven by a 30.2% surge in unwrought gold; aircraft and other transportation equipment rose 23.4% and crude oil exports climbed 5.8%. We just may have a more resilient economy than we thought. Nevertheless, we cannot count on Trump agreeing to a new trade regime that is as good as the original NAFTA – and the cost of reducing tariffs on key sectors may be too high, Trump’s love for tariffs and distain for us won’t change. We can only hope that a smart, well connected and determined Prime Minister can rebuild an economy that will be immune to the vagaries of our neighbour.
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