44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 28, 2022 11:00AM
- Mar/28/22 1:56:11 p.m.
- Watch
- Re: Bill C-8
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the government's fall economic and fiscal update.
To better understand the economic pressures that Canadians are facing, we need to look at the data. We have the highest rate of inflation that we have had in a generation. My children are all adults now and do not know what inflation is. It is at 5.7% at the moment, and that means that, on average, everything is going to cost every Canadian citizen almost 6% more today than it did a year ago. If we look at industry-specific statistics, it is much more challenging than that.
For any young families in my riding of Langley—Aldergrove, part of metro Vancouver, who are prospective first-time buyers, the news is not good at all. Single family houses are up 42%, condos are up 39% and townhouses are up 35%. Frankly, it is becoming unrealistic for young families to even believe they are ever going to own a house.
I was talking to Alison in my riding just the other day. She and her husband are both earning quite a bit of money. They have managed to save up a really good down payment. They pre-qualified for a mortgage. They are doing everything right. About a year or a year a half ago, they got into the market to bid on a townhouse. They lost out to a higher bidder. They tried again on a second townhouse. The same thing happened, and they lost out to a higher bidder. They did that 10 times in a row. The tenth time, they bid way over asking price thinking that they would for sure get it. Again, they were outbid by a higher bidder.
I was talking to Alison and she asked what they were doing wrong. I said that she was not doing anything wrong and that she was doing everything right, but that there were economic forces at play that were beyond the ability of ordinary Canadians to deal with.
This is what the Vancouver Sun said just this weekend about this topic:
Young, educated, urban Canadians have [many reasons] to be angry...with Ottawa for the ways it has worsened the housing crisis.
[The Liberal government] has three times campaigned, with apparent earnest emotion, on promises to provide affordable housing. And each time, [it] has reneged.
Canadian housing is now 100 per cent more expensive than when [the Liberals] first took office in 2015.
That is the legacy of the Liberal government, that housing prices have doubled in the time it has held office.
One of the failed programs of the Liberal government is the first-time homebuyers incentive. That is the program that says the government would own a piece of the equity stake in the home of any first-time homebuyers who use the program. Happily, very few people have actually used the program. I was talking to a mortgage broker who works in my neighbourhood, and he explained to me why the program is a failure. It just does not work, certainly not in my riding where houses are as expensive as they are.
Mortgage Professionals Canada, a very credible organization, has said this about the housing affordability crisis: “If we had historically equally considered the demand-side and supply-side policies, we probably would be in a far better position”.
I would just summarize this part by saying this: Is it not a fresh idea that we are going to look at basic economic principles? That is where the government has failed.
599 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/22 3:38:44 p.m.
- Watch
- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, we are talking about Bill C-8, an act to implement certain provisions of the economic and fiscal update. We are talking about the economic pressures that Canadians are feeling, which are today at a generational high of 5.7%. However, if we look at industry-specific statistics, it can be much worse than that.
We are also talking about housing. The cost of housing, in the time the Liberal government has been office, has doubled. That is the legacy the government leaves behind when it comes to housing. Despite all of its programs designed to make housing more affordable, or maybe because of all those programs, the cost of housing is skyrocketing and it is becoming impossible for many young families to get into their first home. It is a deep concern.
We are urging the government to abandon its programs, like, for example, the failed first-time homebuyer incentive, and to instead look at the basic economic principle of supply and demand. That is the principle that says if an economy is not supplying the goods and services that people need and in the amounts they need, nor the types of product they want, there will be inflation. That is exactly what is happening in Canada today. We have so many young families that want to get into their first home. We have record high immigration, and we all need a place to live. We also have a shortage of rental stock in our growing cities. Coupling that together with unprecedented spending by the government during the pandemic, borrowed money and printed money, we have a perfect storm. We have too many dollars chasing too few goods, and that is what is causing inflation.
I know the governing party has now adopted the Conservative policy in its platform of increasing housing supply. Well, that is a really good idea, and I have a few specific, concrete ideas focusing on my riding of Langley—Aldergrove that would help to increase the housing supply.
First, let us get the SkyTrain built from downtown Surrey to downtown Langley and encourage local governments to open up new areas of land for urban redevelopment.
Second, let us speed up the approval process for new developments so that Canada is the fastest place to get an approval. Investment dollars will come flowing into our economy.
Third, let us create balanced communities and more jobs close to home. Again, I am going to focus on my riding. We need better transit links to Gloucester park in the north part of my riding. We also need better transit links to Campbell Heights industrial park in neighbouring south Surrey. This is what I am hearing from businesses in those areas. They say they cannot get workers.
Fourth, let us train our young people to have the skills and knowledge that employers require. Let us also get more immigrants in. Let us speed up the credentialing approval process, particularly for the trades so we get more immigrants knowing how to build houses so they can build the cities they are going to live in. If we do not solve the housing affordability crisis, we will not be able to tackle inflation.
I am hearing from many people in my riding who are concerned that the government is dismissive about the inflationary pressures they are feeling. They hear the government saying that inflation in 2022 is only transitory because of COVID-related supply chain disruptions and it will all be gone soon. The government also points out that inflation is a global phenomenon. I suppose the implication is that there is not much it can do about it. It also says that even though inflation is at 5.7%, it is not as bad as the rate in other countries, the implication being that there is probably not much it has to do about it.
People in my riding are very concerned. I was talking to a farmer just the other day who is deeply concerned that inflation is becoming embedded in our economy and is not just transitory. He pointed out that the cost of delivering his specialty products from Langley to Calgary has doubled from $3,200 per truckload to $6,000. That is if he can even get truck drivers, because there is a shortage of them, and if he can get trucks, because there is even a shortage of trucks.
There we go. We have a shortage of workers and equipment. We also have ever-increasing energy costs and an increase to the Liberal government's carbon tax coming at the end of this week. All that leads to inflationary pressures.
It is time to unleash the power of the free market again so that our businesses can make more, produce more and pay more wages to more workers, because there is nothing better for the economy than workers taking home a good paycheque. This is what a Conservative government would do. We would unleash the powers of the free market to solve these economic problems and find a much better balance. That is the balance we are looking for, and sadly Bill C-8, an act to implement certain provisions of the economic and fiscal update from the government, is missing that mark.
882 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/22 3:45:38 p.m.
- Watch
- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, the hon. member talks about these wonderful programs. Well, we have not seen them. We are talking about the first-time homebuyer incentive, and it is a complete bust. It does not work in my riding. People have to earn more than the maximum amount set out in the program even to afford to buy a house, so it is another example of a failed program. We are just asking the Liberal-NDP government to stick to basic economic principles.
82 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/22 3:46:50 p.m.
- Watch
- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, I would support any programs that are effective in helping first-time buyers get into the market. It can be very challenging and very intimidating for first-time buyers to bid on a house. I have talked to many people in my riding who are desperate to get into a house, but they keep getting outbid by investors and they fail to buy the home they want. Yes, I would support anything that would help first-time buyers.
80 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/22 3:48:21 p.m.
- Watch
- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, I am going to focus on my riding again. The western part of it is highly urbanized. I talked about the SkyTrain coming to Langley. It is going to help the people living in those urbanized areas. The people in the eastern part of my riding need to drive on the Trans-Canada Highway, and it is completely clogged up. To those people at home, I am also advocating for the expansion of Highway 1, because I recognize that not everybody lives in cities. I also recognize that many Canadians have to drive to work, have to do groceries or have to bring their kids to hockey, for example, so relief at the pumps is absolutely needed.
119 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/22 6:40:25 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I am here this evening to talk about the recent flooding in the Fraser Valley, in particular in the Sumas Prairie area.
The Minister of Emergency Preparedness or his parliamentary secretary will be well aware of the extent and dimensions of the damage and the estimated cost for repairs. It is somewhere between $339 million and $580 million to seismically upgrade the Sumas Prairie diking system and the Matsqui Prairie diking system, and probably about that much money again to pay for repairs that need to be done because of the damage caused by the recent flooding.
Tonight, I want to talk in particular about another aspect, which is the American impact on the flooding on the Canadian side. The Nooksack River runs in the U.S. Just like the Sumas River, it breached its dikes during the floods in November. By way of reference, north is downhill, and that water ran into Canada.
Canadians have said, “Good neighbours don't flood their neighbour's property”, and Americans have said, “Well, good neighbours don't actually block the natural flow of the water”, and that is the natural flow. One American official is quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying, “You're not going to argue against the lay of the land. Sumas Prairie is a lot lower than Everson” on the American side, and that is absolutely true. Sumas Prairie on the Canadian side used to be Sumas Lake until about 100 years ago. Pioneers decided to build a dike around it. They cut in canals, put in pumping stations and pumped Sumas Lake dry. It has become very productive farmland now.
Fixing the Canadian side is going to be the easy part. That is roughly $1 billion. Fixing the American side is going to be much harder from an engineering perspective, but also from an international relations perspective. Canadians are hoping that the Americans will improve the dikes and the levies on the Nooksack River, but there is, of course, a downstream risk for the Americans with that. The Americans prefer a natural floodway northwards across the Canadian side of Sumas Prairie to the Fraser River. They are already buying up farmland for that. If that happens, it will have a devastating impact on the Canadian side. There is a lot of very densely populated and very productive farmland at risk here.
My question to the government is this. What is the government doing in negotiating with the U.S. to come up with a sensible solution to what looks to be a very serious international impasse?
437 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/22 6:47:11 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, of course, we in the Fraser Valley are grateful for support from the federal government in funding repairs and enhancing infrastructure to adapt to climate change. However, my real question today is this: What is the state of negotiations with our American counterparts regarding the Nooksack River specifically, which drains Mount Baker and the North Cascade Mountains? I ask because we cannot solve the problem on our own. Fixing the Canadian side is the easy part; we know exactly what needs to be done. It is just going to require money and a lot of energy. I want to know what our relationship is with the United States on that matter.
113 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
