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Build Canada strong but small

Am I a lunatic? Probably. Naive? Certainly. Hopeful? One must be else one will despair. 

After reading this news story below (yes, I'm behind on all the tabs I've opened), I just couldn't help but feel the need to write to the Prime Minister and Minister of Housing to plead that some of the billions they're so eager to drop on housing be spent on organizations like this which will actually improve the homelessness epidemic, instead of all just funding developers and speculators (some of whom are genuinely trying to do a good thing while making money, others of whom are just profiteering). 

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/04/30/business-councils-new-housing-alliance-partners-complete-first-deeply-affordable-project

Previously, Raising the Roof bought and helped develop Butterfly Lodge, taking an abandoned nail salon on Mountain Avenue and turning it into three affordable housing units, including two large three-bedroom suites for Indigenous families, in 2024.

“That was our starting point (in Winnipeg), and it was such a great experience, a great community and the level of need here fits our mandate in terms of the housing solutions we want to provide to Canadians,” Pollett said.

So, here's my letter to the PM and the housing minister

Something positive for once! Raising the Roof is a national charitable housing developer that works with local partners to create and operate affordable housing and shape solutions that make homelessness preventable.

https://www.raisingtheroof.org

This is a strategy to address the housing crisis that is not only effective in increasing usable housing stock, but does so through connections that ensure appropriate considerations are applied for the greatest possibility of success on the social end while also more like to use small, independent sourcing for the labour side also, thus genuinely building Canada not merely further increasing the obscene wealth of massive developers who are out of touch with real people's needs. 

And, of course, it's a nonprofit also which again means all involved funds work toward achieving the goals of stable and affordable housing (instead of the goal of making already wealthy shareholders wealthier). 

I'd really like to see some of that much vaunted "Build Canada" funding go into accessible, low-bureaucracy, long-term, sustainable grants for organizations like Raising the Roof -- grants that allow significant allocation autonomy on the part of the recipient. 

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