44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 4, 2022 11:00AM
- Apr/4/22 12:56:07 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak to Bill C-8, the fall economic and fiscal update.
I just got my seasons confused there. I realized it was the spring and we are still debating the fall economic—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Apr/4/22 12:56:34 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, let me just start by saying one thing.
My staff were up in the village of Lytton the other day, and the village of Lytton has not had much luck as of late. Finally, after months, we have seen debris removal take place. Some of the archeological assessments mandated by the provincial government have been completed in conjunction with Lytton First Nation. Everyone is hoping to just move forward and see something built now.
This is a provincial matter in one respect, but I had a constituent reach out to me and share an email that the Province of British Columbia had issued tender for housing for firefighters to be placed in Lytton in preparation for the fires that will invariably take place, God willing hopefully not, throughout the interior of British Columbia in just a few months' time.
The same constituent pointed out to me that, after the truckers blockade here in Ottawa, the federal government, through the Ontario economic development agency, put forward some funds to help Ontario businesses recover from being shut down for a few weeks. I am not opposed to that, but I wish the federal government would have done something similar for Lytton.
During this debate today, my constituents in Lytton are still looking for some answers. This week, they did get some help in the fall economic statement; I will acknowledge that. However, we are hoping this week, in the budget, there is going to be a bit more for B.C., because the village of Lytton is still suffering and the people I represent just want to go home.
The next point I would be remiss if I did not raise is the infrastructure challenges facing the City of Abbotsford. The Fraser Valley Current put out a story on some of the options that are before my hometown and where I live today. The money required to account for the disasters that took place and to plan for future disasters is anywhere from just over $1 billion to $2.8 billion. It is really bad.
A few weeks ago, a number of B.C. MPs went on a tour throughout the region and the city officials pleaded with us to keep pushing the federal government so that we get the resources we need to protect the Fraser Valley, the most economically significant region of the province of British Columbia. These resources and these contributions are taxpayer money well spent, and I am really hoping to see something more from the federal government on the infrastructure challenges facing Abbotsford and the eastern Fraser Valley.
I am part of a group called Lets'mot community forum. It brings together many of the Stó:lō nations of the eastern Fraser Valley, the District of Kent, Sts'ailes Nation and the Village of Harrison Hot Springs. They too, like the City of Abbotsford, are hoping to see more from the federal government in respect to infrastructure dollars.
We know that the Canada Infrastructure Bank has not spent nearly as much money as it could have. Here is an opportunity to use those funds wisely to support British Columbians when all of the engineers and all of the people are on the same page. We all know that this work needs to get done. Let us do it now before inflation makes it even more expensive in six months' to a year's time. We have to recover appropriately, and we have to plan for future disasters in the province of British Columbia.
I would also be remiss if I did not talk about housing. In my neighbourhood, like most other neighbourhoods in Abbotsford or Mission, we have seen a 100% increase in the cost of housing in the last year or so. Young families, people I know and people I grew up with seem to fall into two camps: They won the housing lottery or they lost the housing lottery through no fault of their own. People are losing hope, and they need to see the government completely overhaul its approach to housing.
Just this morning in The Globe and Mail, the Liberals touted their answer to the housing crisis that we face: the shared equity mortgage programs. We have the information tabled here before Parliament showing that it did not work. The money was not spent and people do not want to share their home equity with the Government of Canada.
The government has to acknowledge that it got this program wrong, and it needs to put that money into something else. It is not working. Nobody wants to do it. The government tried adjusting it once. It increased the family income levels and increased the price of a home that one was allowed to purchase under the program. It has not worked and it needs a new approach. Canadians need something now. We cannot wait three years for the next election.
A young family came to visit me in my office last week, and they said they sold their townhouse in Maple Ridge thinking they would wait a few months to live with their parents and then buy again, but in those few months there was such an inflationary impact on the cost of housing that they have now been priced out of the market. They do not know what to do. They are looking for options.
We know some of the problems that relate to housing do lie with the municipalities, but I believe the federal government does have a role to incent the construction of more housing across the board. This is something all Canadians could get behind, to build more homes and to build more homes for young families. We have to get it done. The government has not been getting it done, and the programs it has put forward are complete failures.
I was speaking to a vegetable grower last night on my way to the airport. Another major issue that is not being addressed by the government is the extreme labour shortages facing Canadian businesses, especially in the agricultural sector. The challenges in the agricultural sector are especially acute right now because Canada is poised to play a greater role in key crops because of the conflict in Ukraine. We need to be looking very closely at ways to help our producers get the labour they need, both domestic and foreign, onto farms as soon as possible because they cannot keep up. They cannot keep up with inflation, and if they do not have enough workers, they will have lower profits. Combine that with the inflationary impact, and they are facing a really challenging year.
The government needs to drastically look at how it is dealing with the labour shortage on farms. The price of food is already going up. I do not know about others, but my trips to Costco seem to be getting more and more expensive every single week. The hothouse tomatoes that I love eating on my sandwiches are costing more and more as well. We have to do more. We have the infrastructure in Canada to produce more food. We have the land, but we need the policies to attract labour to the agricultural sector to get our crops grown.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not talk about gasoline. Like a lot of young dads, I went to soccer practice recently and I had to fill up my 2015 Toyota RAV4. It cost me over $100. In Abbotsford the cost of gas was $2.01 a litre when I filled it up. For a number of years, the government has done everything in its power to prevent Canadian oil and gas getting to tidewater, and oil and gas getting shipped to refineries.
Everyone in the House has recognized that we need a new approach to oil and gas that would allow us to process it efficiently in Canada and get the pipelines built so there would not be such an affordability crunch on young families. People are really feeling the crunch.
To put this all in summation, my constituents cannot afford to drive to work anymore. Driving into Vancouver five days a week, with the cost of gasoline, costs a couple of extra hundred bucks every month. If people do not own a home right now, they are screwed.
A buddy of mine I went to high school with reached out to me the other day. He said he had been renting a house for 10 years and paying $1,700 in rent. The owner just sold it, and now he has to go into a smaller place where his rent is doubled. He does not know what he is going to do for his kids. He is in a tight bind. He does not know if he has a future in our province anymore.
We have to look very closely on what we are doing on housing and the inflationary impact of all this spending. There are a lot of things going on in our country. I am thankful for the time to share a little of that today.
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- Apr/4/22 1:07:06 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, I think I agree with something from the member for Kingston and the Thousand Islands—
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- Apr/4/22 1:07:25 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, my apologies, it is Kingston and the Islands.
I was on the red eye last night, as I figured I was going to be voting on time allocation this morning, but apparently the agreement between the Liberals and the NDP for supporting time allocation failed. The member is talking about the Conservatives, but it was actually the failure of the House leaders of the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party to reach an agreement on time allocation.
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- Apr/4/22 1:08:59 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, I believe that in this specific case the federal government needs to give up some of its programs under the national housing strategy and turn the construction of housing for young families over to Canada's provinces and territories.
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- Apr/4/22 1:10:01 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague for Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke has a very fair question.
Back 100 years ago, in the Fraser Valley, we had electric rail that went from Vancouver to Chilliwack, yet we moved away from that. We need to get back to rail infrastructure to ease the congestion and get people to where they need to go faster. People want it. It is good for the economy, and it is good for people's well-being. We need to make investments in rail infrastructure.
Back in 2015, the Liberals promised they were going to get SkyTrain built, and it still has not been built out to Langley. We need to move faster on critical rail infrastructure in this country to move people and our goods faster. It is good for the economy, and it is good for everyone.
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- Apr/4/22 2:52:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, hearing the commentary today, I think there is one thing all British Columbians can agree on, irrespective of party, and that is that the Government of Canada has a role to play in helping to rebuild British Columbia.
In this week's budget, can the government let us know whether there would be additional funds on top of the $5 billion for dike infrastructure, road repair, and first nations emergency management and supplies? British Columbia needs it. Will the government be there to help rebuild my province?
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- Apr/4/22 4:27:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, the member is insinuating that there are members of the far right in the Conservative Party. That is completely false and inappropriate.
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- Apr/4/22 4:27:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, that is completely inappropriate and it is not a fact. My family came to Canada. I am a member of the Conservative Party. One does not insinuate that I am a member of the far right. It is completely inappropriate and unbecoming of the member for Winnipeg North. I expect more from him.
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- Apr/4/22 5:47:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, he did not make reference to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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- Apr/4/22 6:12:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this morning I was reading an article in The Globe and Mail, and it was quoting, extensively, the chief executive of the Bank of Canada, David McKay. He said that he was uneasy about the economy and that there was a frustration and mistrust between the business community and the Government of Canada. He said some of those challenges are ideological, that there needs to be a shift away from a tax-and-spend approach, which does not create sustainable growth. He also said tax and spending like the government is doing is like eating Sugar Pops for breakfast. He said the government is missing a chance for long-term success and that Canada is lagging its peers on key measures of productivity and investment. The article indicated that Canada's five-year average GDP growth is the lowest among the G7 nations.
When the member stands up and starts pointing fingers at me, he asks why we need to have a debate on this concurrence report. It is because it is not the Conservative Party but the Bank of Canada saying that the government and its tax-and-spend approach are ideologically hurting the country of Canada. Therefore, what is it: Sugar Pops or a bowl of Corn Flakes?
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- Apr/4/22 6:32:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, thousands of my constituents, and other Canadians from across the country, signed a petition I put forward on improving the number of flights from Canada to India. They are calling upon the Government of Canada to renegotiate the air transportation agreement with the Government of India to allow for direct flights to Amritsar Airport.
My constituents understand that this will not take place until the war in Ukraine, the invasion by Russia, has ended. That said, they are still hopeful that the Government of Canada will move forward in good faith with our good friends in India to improve this agreement to allow for those direct flights. It is good for the economy, and it is good for the cultural ties, especially between my riding and the Punjab region of India.
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