SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 170 - Mar/21/23

Mr. Alex Ruff (Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, CPC)

Mar/21/23 2:09:56 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, one of the biggest issues small businesses and industries are facing across Canada is labour shortages. However, even businesses that find qualified workers, there is no affordable place for them to live. It is not just workers who cannot find a place to live. I have not-for-profit affordable housing projects for seniors that have been impacted by the Liberal’s record inflation that has more than doubled construction costs from $3 million to $7 million dollars. Inflation is not the only problem. I am hearing from affordable, sustainable housing projects that are running into a wall of bureaucratic red tape with respect to re-zoning and permitting that delay construction while costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. During a public housing meeting that I hosted, the frustration from Canadians, developers, municipalities and not-for-profits was palatable over the lack of affordable housing. Addressing the housing crisis ultimately comes down to a simple question of supply and demand along with urgent action. I recommend the Liberals start adopting the policies we have put forth on housing, accreditation and getting rid of the gate keepers or get out of the road and let a Conservative government do it.

202 words

Context: House Hansard - 170 - Mar/21/23

Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ)

Mar/21/23 5:09:25 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-23

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very long speech. I am going to talk about the very long detour that he made at the beginning, as we were all wondering how he was going to land on topic. He eventually got there after a few minutes. He talked about housing, actually, and he touted his party, which released a housing plan two weeks ago. I have never heard the Conservatives come up with coherent solutions to the housing crisis that we are experiencing in Canada right now. Obviously, the current Liberal government is useless. It is one of the worst governments we have ever seen when it comes to the housing crisis. CMHC economists say that, in Quebec alone, 1,100,000 units need to be built over the next 10 years to address the crisis. We often hear the Conservatives, who have close ties to the private sector, say that the private sector will take care of it. It is true, the private sector will build 500,000 units, but governments will have to somehow step in and build 600,000 units in the next 10 years. That means the government is going to have to spend and invest to fix this problem. Does my colleague have a plan for tackling this crisis?

220 words

Context: House Hansard - 170 - Mar/21/23

Mr. Garnett Genuis

Mar/21/23 5:10:28 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-23

Madam Speaker, I will say that the announcement our leader made last week was quite historic. It was so historic that the place where he made the announcement might one day be designated a historic site. The important point about that announcement was that, in the current situation, we are seeing so much gatekeeping at the municipal level. We need a federal government that is prepared to stand up and say, across levels of government, on the funding the federal government provides, that we need to ensure barriers are removed and housing is getting built. There are a variety of different factors that influence the price of housing, but a key one surely has to be the supply of housing. If there is not enough housing supply, then prices are going to be pushed up. I will say that it was a historic announcement by our leader, and it will be proven to have a very significant impact. Conservatives have been proposing a number of different measures around improving access to housing for a long time, including opening up federal lands and other such measures. Our leader is taking this as an important step further with these historic proposals.

199 words