44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 26, 2022 10:00AM
- Apr/26/22 10:17:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about housing.
With this budget the government claims to want to help cities accelerate housing construction and address zoning issues. Cities are a provincial jurisdiction, so the federal government will have to negotiate with Quebec. That is a problem.
Following the 2017 launch of the national housing strategy, which was negotiated with Quebec, it took three years for the money to flow to housing in Quebec. Meanwhile, billions of dollars were being spent in Toronto and Vancouver. Everything was going very well for them.
My biggest fear is that it will take that long again.
Would it not have been simpler to send a cheque directly to the Quebec government, so that those who actually know the needs on the ground could manage municipal issues?
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- Apr/26/22 11:49:49 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I tend to agree with my colleague's criticism of the government's inconsistent housing figures.
The government admits defeat on the housing crisis right in the budget. The government admits that its proposal will not be enough. The Liberals claim that 3.5 million homes need to be built by 2031. I do not know where they got that figure of 3.5 million, but that is what they said.
The government said that Canada currently constructs 100,000 homes and that it will double this number. This 100,000 figure is not real. It does not exist. The National Housing Council said that 35,000 homes have been built since 2017. Say it were true that 100,000 homes have been built. This government is suggesting that 200,000 be built, but 200,000 a year for the next 10 years is just two million homes.
The government says that we need 3.5 million homes, but this will not happen. It is basically admitting that it will fail.
What are my colleague's thoughts on that?
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- Apr/26/22 12:33:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to commend my colleague.
She has just made a remarkable speech. It was so very touching and inspiring. We do not hear enough speeches like this. I would like to commend her and sincerely thank her.
I would like to get back to something she mentioned that is a major concern, namely women who are victims of intimate partner violence.
Thanks to the funds allocated to housing, a frontline shelter for women who are victims of intimate partner violence was built in my riding. It will be able to take in nine women and their children. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of resources. Every day in Quebec, a woman experiencing intimate partner violence gets turned away from a resource and has to return home to a toxic relationship because of a lack of resources.
Does my colleague not think that we should work even harder to get the government to provide more funding for resources for families and women who are victims of intimate partner violence?
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- Apr/26/22 1:23:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, last year in committee I had the opportunity to interview the president and CEO of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, who came to talk about the housing crisis. When I asked her what we should do now to resolve the crisis, she had one answer: increase supply.
There are in fact a few measures in the budget aimed at increasing supply. However, there are long-term measures focusing on demand that we are having trouble understanding. For example, the tax-free savings account for the purchase of a first property is not a bad measure, but why will it take effect only next year? People will be able to contribute up to $8,000 a year for five years. We will not be seeing any results for a while. In addition, to invest $8,000 a year in a house, you need some income. These measures will not help the most disadvantaged.
Why are we not focusing on real investments? Consider the rapid housing initiative. It is a good, $1.5-billion program that will actually create social housing. We could have invested a lot more money into it to really help the most disadvantaged, but the budget falls short in that regard.
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- Apr/26/22 1:37:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last week I did some volunteering in a homeless resource called “La Halte du Coin”, which took over an old church during the pandemic and is open 24/7. It was very troubling. I was there from four hours to six hours and helped serve meals. At six o’clock, everyone is asked to leave.
They can serve 50 meals, but they have only 30 beds. People wait outside, but not everyone can get in. That night, it was raining. It was unbelievably sad. When I left at around 6:30 p.m., there were a lot of people waiting outside. Those who were unable to get in would sleep somewhere in the neighbourhood, in a park or near an ATM. It is a tragic situation.
The federal government was very reluctant to renew funding for these resources. According to the budget, they will continue to fund the reaching home program, in response to the pandemic, until 2026. People want predictability. Those who work there are not paid $150 an hour. We need predictability.
Why can we come up with 15-year plans for all sorts of things like climate change, but not to help the homeless? That is scandalous, in my opinion.
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