Sask Housing Corporation's Rental Units Are Full Of Exposed Asbestos

And nobody is telling the people living in them.

I like Meara Conway.

But this July news event was weird.

“The Saskatchewan Housing Corporation documents, obtained by the NDP, reveal the vacancy rate of government housing has more than doubled during the past 10 years…3,161 vacant affordable homes, or an 18 per cent vacancy rate, by the end of last year.” - CBC.ca, July 26, 2023

Despite being positioned as some kind of secret buried in documents “obtained by the NDP”, these numbers are not new, especially for the Saskatchewan NDP.

It’s one of the only set of numbers that the SHC and its umbrella Ministry, Social Services, tend to come equipped with to annual committee meetings, like this one in 2021:

April 26, 2021 committee meeting, Carr and Conway

In fact, in April of 2021 Conway was told by then-Social Services Minister Lori Carr that there were 3288 SHC vacancies, which is higher than the rate she and Carla Beck revealed in July 2023.

I have a real problem with the NDP positioning vacancy information as sudden and shocking. Not only have they known about it, they’re providing the Sask Party with the opportunity to declare themselves surprised and worse yet, evoke stereotypes and prejudice against poor people, blaming them for wrecking social housing:

“We spend a lot of money on keeping, on upgrading our units and some of them are used and unfortunately, some get destroyed by some tenants,” - Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky, Regina Leader Post, July 25, 2023

It’s all theatre. Both the Sask Party and NDP have always known the SHC vacancy rate, which yes, is insane.

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A few weeks later in September, Conway again positioned this as some kind of top secret:

“Documents obtained through the FOI process, as well as a review of financially audited statements of SHC, the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation audit reports, show that over the better part of a decade the Sask Party government has quietly, dramatically cut supports for Sask Housing units,” - Regina Leader-Post, September 12, 2023

I’m sorry, but “documents obtained” and “FOI process” is such absolute bullshit.

It is so utterly self-serving for the NDP to position themselves as overcoming some kind of obstacle to access the info. They do this to deflect from the fact their party’s failure to properly oppose the Sask Party over the last decade is a big reason we’re here. It’s misleading and wrong.

Between what’s available as open source material and committee meetings like the one I highlighted earlier, the Saskatchewan NDP has always had access to all information on SHC, including its financials. Competent caucus staff would have had this information in front of her a long time ago.

Anyway Conway, Saskatchewan’s Opposition housing critic, is correct in sharing all this info and claiming it’s disturbing.

It is.

It’s not the whole story.

Not even close.