OTTAWA – Staff in former human resources minister Diane Finley’s office contacted a Crown corporation about an NDP housing bill two days before it was defeated by Conservatives, emails show.
The emails precipitated the creation of a backgrounder posted on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. website which estimated the cost of the NDP’s Bill C-400, which called for a national housing strategy, at $5.5 billion.
While Crown corporations are accountable to Parliament and report to a minister, they operate at arm’s length from the government. The NDP is questioning why CMHC was weighing in on its bill that did not explicitly ask for new spending.
NDP housing critic Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet said the Conservatives are trying to influence non-partisan Crown corporations.
“They keep talking about Crown corporations being arm’s length, and then they keep diddling with them. It’s not legit,” she said in an interview.
The documents, obtained by the NDP through Access to Information, show CMHC officials scrambled to provide information about the bill after being contacted by a press secretary in Finley’s office.
The NDP’s legislation did not come with a price tag. It asked for consultation between the minister, provinces, and interest groups such as aboriginal communities to ensure affordable housing for Canadians.
After the backgrounder was posted, the $5.5-billion figure was used by Conservatives in the House of Commons to attack the NDP in statements before and during question period on Feb. 27.
The bill was defeated by the Conservatives in a vote that night. The Liberals, Bloc and NDP supported it.
Boutin-Sweet said opposition legislation can’t ask for specific costs but rather called for an affordable housing plan.
“The NDP was asking the minister to sit down with people and figure out what was possible,” she said.
“It was an unfair tactic …to convince a lot of the backbenchers who might have voted for this because it made sense, to vote against it.”
Canada is the only G8 country without a national housing strategy.
A spokeswoman for Employment Minister Jason Kenney, who is now responsible for CMHC, said she can’t speak to what happened under the previous minister but there is “nothing surprising or unusual” about Finley’s office being in contact with CMHC.
“It is standard practice for departmental officials to provide the estimated cost of private member’s bills, whether they originated from a government or opposition member,” spokeswoman Alexandra Fortier said in an email.
“The NDP is trying to change the channel from yet another one of their irresponsible proposals that would cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars.”
Fortier said the information in the backgrounder was provided using objective data. She said it is necessary when a private member’s bill requires a Royal Recommendation to proceed.
A Royal Recommendation is required with bills that involve spending public money, and that must be agreed to by a government minister before the bill is passed at third reading. Bill C-400 died at second reading before it could be studied at committee.
The emails also show an official from the Privy Council Office – which provides non-partisan advice to the prime minister and cabinet – asked CMHC when it was posting the costing document.
It went online later that day – the same day as the vote.
The emails do not, however, show how the CMHC came up with the $5.5 billion figure.
Instead, the backgrounder cites the $5.5 billion “in rental subsidies alone,” and goes on to detail the government’s investment in affordable housing as well as a homeless strategy, aboriginal housing and mortgage loan insurance.
A CMHC spokeswoman said the preparation and review of cost estimates on opposition bills is necessary “so that the government can make informed decisions.”
“This isn’t a partisan thing, and it is something that is done quite regularly,” said Teresa Amoroso, manager of media relations at CMHC.
In a follow-up email, Amoroso provided an estimate that says 1,140,844 households would require a subsidy of $4,776, for a total of $5,448,670,944.
However she could not come up with other instances when an opposition bill had its cost posted on the website.
Amoroso said part of CMHC’s mandate is to provide social housing policy and in that way it acts like a government department that reports to the minister.
“Any government department could be asked to review legislation that’s before the government, and to provide information on that. That’s not anything that’s, you know, out of the ordinary,” she said.
Marian Ngo, Finley’s press secretary at the time, sent an email to communications officials at CMHC at 2:59 pm on Monday Feb. 25.
The subject was “C-400” and the importance was set to high, although the email released to the NDP under access law was blank.
In a back and forth of emails, communications officials at the CMHC asked each other “do we have anything to share?”
John Embury, director of strategic communications at CMHC, asked at 4:11 pm on Monday Feb. 25 “When is the vote on C-400?”
At 4:19 p.m. Marie-Claude Tremblay, another CMHC official, replied: “The vote is this Wednesday night (6-ish).”
Embury sent Ngo a word document entitled “Consolidated Assisted Housing Media Lines” at 4:32 p.m. on Feb. 25.
“Please find attached CMHC’s consolidated media lines for affordable housing which address the request for a national housing strategy,” he wrote.
Communications officials at CMHC also sent drafts of the backgrounder to Alyson Queen, Finley’s director of communications.
Queen, who still works for Finley (who is now minister of Public Works and Government Services), did not respond to request for comment.
The C-400 backgrounder was posted online Feb. 27, the day of the vote. PCO official Helen Leslie also sent an email that day asking “When do you plan to post?” the emails show.
After it went online, the $5.5-billion figure was cited in the House by Conservative MP Paul Calandra in a statement before question period.
It was later repeated by Conservative Joe Daniel on the NDP’s “risky spending schemes.”
“Today we are voting on their $5.5-billion housing bill. One wonders how they plan to support these dangerous and risky spending schemes,” he said.
Treasury Board President Tony Clement also used the estimate when he answered a backbencher’s question about government spending.
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