{"id":75449,"date":"2024-03-14T13:07:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T19:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=75449"},"modified":"2024-03-20T09:23:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T15:23:18","slug":"prime-minister-justin-trudeau-visits-sait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2024\/03\/14\/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-visits-sait\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits SAIT"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE PM IS \u00a0IN THE HOUSE:<\/strong> MP George Chahal, left, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Dean of the School of Health and Public Safety Sonja Chamberlin gather Wednesday at a news conference in the SAIT dental clinic. (Photo by Shelby Befus\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

H<\/span>elp appears to be on the way for post-secondary students \u2014 and other Canadians \u2014 struggling with the skyrocketing cost of housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The specifics of that help, however, remain fuzzy in advance of the federal budget coming down in April.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, SAIT\u2019s The Press<\/em> asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau how he plans to address the student housing crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis budget that we’re working on right now will be focused on supporting Canadians and building a better future for the coming years,\u201d Trudeau said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe’ve also moved forward with a wide range of housing programs that are creating more affordable housing and working on a reaching home program to end homelessness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After meeting with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Trudeau stopped in at the Senator Burns Building on Wednesday and fielded questions from a crowd of reporters in the dental clinic.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Prime Minister highlighted the <\/span>Canadian Dental Care Plan<\/span><\/a> and discussed the carbon tax increase, rising tensions in Haiti, former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi\u2019s campaign for the provincial NDP leadership, and the housing crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the influx of newcomers to Calgary, prices of one- and two-bedroom units <\/span>shot up by over eight per cent<\/span><\/a> in Calgary over the past year.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Calgary\u2019s vacancy rate 2023 plunged to 1.4 per cent in 2023, down from 2.7 per cent in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really brutal,\u201d said SAIT student Noah Korver. \u201cI know people are living with five or six roommates to make ends meet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s average rental cost jumped by 14.3 per cent in 2023, with a two-bedroom apartment renting for an average of $1,695 per month.\u00a0<\/span>In 2022, the average cost for a two-bedroom apartment was $1,466.<\/span><\/p>\n

Korver said he is sacrificing his quality of life so he can afford rent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get tons of sleep sometimes because people are loud,\u201d he said. \u201cI live in a hobbit hole. So I don\u2019t eat very well, because I don\u2019t have space to make food.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt makes it a lot harder to eat properly or exercise. It takes a toll on your mental health.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Student Spencer Poole said he is making adjustments to keep up with his bills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI still ask my parents every once in a while to bail me out,\u201d Poole said. \u201cAlso, my car doesn\u2019t like it, but I use regular gas rather than mid-grade now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about the housing crisis, Trudeau also cited the high number of international students in Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that those students are being properly supported to get the best quality education and that the numbers of people coming in are manageable to the ecosystems supporting and teaching them,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In January, the federal government announced a cap on the intake of international students in 2024 and 2025. Next year, the federal government will approve 360,000 study permits, a drop of around 35 per cent from 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

The caps will be adjusted by province and territory, weighted by population, and will result in some provinces seeing numbers potentially cut in half.<\/span><\/p>\n

SAIT international student Dhaval Ahir agrees with the cap.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s needed,\u201d Ahir said. \u201cThere was an influx of international students, and there are really few housing options.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should build more apartments to rent, and the problem will take care of itself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Korver holds out little hope that the problem will, in fact, take care of itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bad,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to watch. I end up reading about it, then shutting down and crawling under a rock.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Without drastic changes in the way Calgary builds and zones new housing, Korver sees no way for him to break into the real estate market.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t anticipate ever being able to live in a house,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at this point, with the amount of money I\u2019m making as a student, I probably won\u2019t be able to afford rent either.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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ON THE HOT SEAT<\/strong>: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers media questions flanked by Calgary MP George Chahal, left, David Ross, SAIT president and CEO, and Sonja Chamberlin, Dean of the School of Health and Public Safety. \u00a0(Photo by Shelby Befus\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Help is on the way for post-secondary students \u2014 and other Canadians \u2014 struggling with the skyrocketing cost of housing in Alberta and across the country. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":865,"featured_media":75436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"SP PM Trudeau JDR","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-75449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-campus-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/865"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75449"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75581,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75449\/revisions\/75581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}