Footage from a tweet posted by federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre showing a homeless camp in Kelowna.
Image Credit: TWITTER/PierrePoilievre
May 31, 2023 - 11:34 AM
The head of the organization trying to reduce homelessness in Kelowna doesn’t take kindly to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s comments about her city.
The federal opposition leader retweeted a TikTok video featuring the city’s homeless camping site and said Kelowna looked like a third world country.
“I’m not surprised to see it featured as ‘poverty porn’ as it's a common tool for politicians to fuel their agenda and blame other governments,” Stephanie Gauthier, executive director of the Central Okanagan Journey Home Society, said in a text message to iNFOnews.ca.
“The reality is, the mass modern homelessness we’re seeing across Canada and in Kelowna stems from federal policy decisions that go back to the 80s,” she said. “That’s when cuts to social services began and the government moved away from affordable housing investment. Every government and political party wears a piece of the blame to go around on that.”
READ MORE: Pierre Poilievre compares Kelowna to a third-world country
From 2011-2016 alone 320,000 affordable housing units in Canada were bought by investors, Gauthier wrote. In Kelowna, the city absorbed 8,185 higher cost rental units between 2016 and 2021 but during the same time 2,530 affordable units were lost.
The situation is compounded by the fact that Kelowna is one of the most expensive and most desirable cities in which to live in Canada.
“We have a concerning number of seniors homeless in Kelowna and people from all walks of life being priced out of their homes,” Gauthier said.
“As for Pierre’s comment in general, it is typical old school political posturing. No fruitful policy commitments or solutions, a lack of awareness of how our country got to this point and completely lacking substance as someone who believes he’s fit to be the Prime Minister in the future. It’s cheap sound-biting and exploitative of people living in dire circumstances.”
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