Senators’ Statements: Stephen Huddart

Thank you, Your Honour. I always wanted to set the chamber on fire with my words, but this is not quite how I expected it would happen.

I was introducing Stephen Huddart — imagine him in virtual reality there — from the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. I wanted to tell you about a big idea he is leading that is truly transformational. He wants to create a new ecosystem, a whole new marketplace where proven social solutions meet with financial investors both to make money and to do good work, leaving a reasonable profit for the investor and also a legacy of public good — profit with purpose, as someone has called it.

To give you an example of what this means, let’s take housing on First Nations reserves as an example. Certainly this is a difficult problem to tackle. However, McConnell has found a successful path forward in partnership with the Huron people, the federal government and private financial institutions. Close to 400 community members in the Huron-Wendat First Nation in Quebec have been able to access mortgages from a community-operated fund. They are now homeowners. In addition to the creation of home ownership for 400 people, jobs for trades people in the community have been created, and, of course, an investment return for the mortgage holders has been assured.

Honourable senators, I think we all agree and realize that the complexity of problems facing Canadians is only growing. We also know that it is impossible to meet all the needs of all Canadians through government grants and funds. Creating a new marketplace of social finance, where proven ideas meet money, seems to me to be a truly big idea and worthy of our attention.

Later today, along with Stephen Huddart, I am convening a group of fellow parliamentarians and representatives from business, and others from the social innovation community, to discuss how Canada can amplify these and similar efforts on a national, regional and local scale. I hope to update you periodically on the progress of this big idea. In the meantime, please join me in congratulating Stephen Huddart and the J. W. McConnell Foundation for their courage in not simply being satisfied with doing good charitable work but reaching for transformative and systems change.