44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 22, 2023 01:00PM
- Mar/22/23 2:24:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the question was about what he promised in 2015: “We will make it easier for Canadians to find an affordable place to call home.” When he made that promise, the average monthly payment for a mortgage in Canada was a modest $1,400. What is it today?
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- Mar/22/23 2:24:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course, situations vary across the country, but we have stepped up with housing programs in big cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. We have also stepped up in smaller municipalities and rural areas across the country that need supports in housing.
Unlike the previous Conservative government, which did not feel the federal government had any role to play in housing, we stepped up in tangible, concrete ways to deliver more housing, to deliver rapid housing and to deliver programs that fight homelessness and programs that increase rental stocks. We will continue investing to support people, alongside our partners in the provinces and municipalities.
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- Mar/22/23 2:25:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, he wants to compare that with the Conservative record. I gave him a chance. I told him that when the Conservatives left office, the average monthly payment on a new house was $1,400. I asked him to tell us what it is today, and either he does not know or he is too afraid to admit that it has gone up to over $3,100. That is over a 100% increase.
When the Prime Minister took office, a two-bedroom apartment in Canada's 10 biggest cities, on average, was $1,100. How much is it today?
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- Mar/22/23 2:25:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, over the past eight years, we have seen significant growth in the economy. We have seen more Canadians getting jobs than ever before. We have seen more Canadians lifted out of poverty than ever before because of the things we did, from the very first initiative, which was lowering taxes for the middle class and raising them on the wealthiest 1%, an initiative the Conservatives voted against, to delivering a Canada child benefit that puts more money in the pockets of families that need it. We also stopped sending child benefit cheques to millionaires.
We have continued to move forward in supporting communities, supporting home builders and supporting homeowners and homebuyers. We will continue to be there for Canadians.
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- Mar/22/23 2:26:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, he would have us believe that Canadians have never had it so good. Let us ask the nine in 10 young people who believe they will never own a home, or the 35-year-olds living in their parents' basements because they cannot afford the new doubling of the average down payment, mortgage payment or rental cost.
Speaking of paycheques, when he took office, someone only needed 39% of the average paycheque to make monthly payments on the average house. That number has risen to 62%.
By every objective measurement, things are more expensive and Canadians are taking home less. How did he spend so much to achieve so little?
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- Mar/22/23 2:27:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, across the country, we have seen record job growth. We have seen a record number of Canadians lifted out of poverty. We have seen investments to fight climate change that have put more money in people's pockets. We have continued to move forward in growing the economy.
However, it is only the Conservative leader trying to say Canadians have never had it so good. We know Canadians are struggling, and that is why we continue to step up with investments in dental care and investments in low-income rental supports, two initiatives the Conservatives voted against. We will continue to be there to deliver for Canadians while we deliver a better future for everyone.
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- Mar/22/23 2:27:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is trying to talk about everything but the housing questions I asked. It is easy to understand why. When he took office, housing was affordable, and now it is impossibly expensive. In fact, it is much more expensive than around the rest of the world. Vancouver is now the third most overpriced housing market, and Toronto the 10th worst, in the world. They are worse than Manhattan, Singapore, London and countless other places with more people, more money and less land. In fact, the average house price last year in the United States was almost half less than it is here in Canada.
Why is housing so much more expensive here than elsewhere in the world?
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- Mar/22/23 2:28:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have continually invested in programs and supports for Canadians, and have seen millions of families entering new homes and getting the supports they need. There are millions of refurbishments, with millions in supports right across the country.
It is interesting to contrast that with the Conservative record. In the last election campaign, the Conservative platform promise on housing was to give tax breaks to wealthy landlords. That was their approach on housing.
We contrasted with significant investments in delivering for first-time homebuyers, delivering for people facing homelessness and delivering for Canadian families to access better housing.
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- Mar/22/23 2:29:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, although no one knows just how many there are, many Chinese nationals who are under the Prime Minister's solemn responsibility and whom Canada let in, are being forced under threat to return to China. We can imagine what is waiting for them upon their return.
Our main ally is coming to Ottawa tomorrow. Is that not just one more reason to establish that the Prime Minister cannot choose who will lead the inquiry or establish that the inquiry does not need to be public?
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- Mar/22/23 2:30:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, since the start, I have been very clear that it was not up to me to launch a public inquiry, because it may not be the best thing to do. That is why we decided to turn to an expert, someone who is absolutely unimpeachable, to make that determination and establish the best way forward.
That is why the former governor general will determine whether there will be a public inquiry or not, and what the parameters of that public inquiry would be. In the meantime, he is encouraging and assuring that the various committees are doing their job to set the record straight and restore the confidence of Canadians.
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- Mar/22/23 2:30:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, allow me to make a distinction between the Communist Chinese regime and the Chinese people, as well as the extraordinary Chinese culture, which dates back five millennia. Electoral interference, illegal financing, industrial espionage and the forced repatriation of Chinese Canadians: Enough is enough.
Have we not come to the point where a self-serving appointment is not going to cut it?
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- Mar/22/23 2:31:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think that Canadians understand full well that for issues as serious as this one, what we need is not more partisanship, but less. That is why we chose an eminent Canadian who will be able to look into all these issues. He will ensure that we keep using our tools and approaches for ensuring the integrity of our electoral system and protecting our communities with origins in other countries.
We are offering less partisanship, but the opposition parties want more.
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- Mar/22/23 2:32:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are seeing the cost of living continue to hit hard across the country. People are struggling with the cost of everything.
We know that some numbers have come down with inflation, but, really, where it counts, like groceries, inflation is still over 10%. That means people go into a grocery store, pick up items, realize they cannot afford them and put them back. At the same time, corporate CEOs for these grocery stores are making record profits.
When will the Prime Minister stop the excess profit being made by his CEO friends and stand up for Canadians so they can afford their groceries?
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- Mar/22/23 2:32:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as inflation was hitting in the fall, we stepped up with support for 11 million Canadians through a GST rebate over six months. We moved forward on dental care supports so that over 200,000 kids could afford to go to the dentist. We moved forward with extra help for families that need help paying their rent.
These are the kinds of things we will continue to do to help Canadians. Child care costs are down, cut in half to $10 a day for millions of families across this country. These are the kinds of things that have made a difference. We will continue to be there for Canadians, including with the budget coming out next week.
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- Mar/22/23 2:33:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the cost of living is on the rise. It is getting harder and harder to make ends meet. Affordable housing is especially hard to come by. Since this Prime Minister was elected, rents have doubled because the rules established by the Conservatives and the Liberals favour the ultrarich.
When is this Prime Minister going to stop favouring his rich friends and build more affordable housing for the average person?
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- Mar/22/23 2:33:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, over the past eight years, we have made historic investments in housing to give Canadians access to more affordable housing.
In fact, that is why I was so pleased to be in Guelph, Ontario, last week to announce $4 billion in investments for municipalities across the country to build housing faster, particularly affordable housing.
We know there is still a lot of work to do, but with our housing accelerator fund, our rapid housing initiative, our homelessness strategy and our affordability plan, we will continue to be there for Canadians.
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- Mar/22/23 2:34:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I asked the Prime Minister why mortgage payments have doubled under his eight years, why rent payments have doubled under his eight years and why Canadian house prices are about 72% more expensive than their American counterparts, even though it has 10 times the population on even less land. He could not answer any of these question.
The answer, according to Scotiabank, is that “Canada has the lowest number of housing units per 1,000 residents of any G7 country. The number of housing units per 1,000 Canadians has been falling since 2016”, right when the Prime Minister took office.
Why has the Prime Minister continually given billions of dollars to municipal government gatekeepers but blocked the construction of Canadian homes?
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- Mar/22/23 2:35:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this goes to the heart of the disagreement on housing between the Leader of the Opposition and I. I recognize, as this government recognizes, that we need to work with municipalities to help them change zoning laws, to help them accelerate their permitting processes and to create more opportunities to build affordable homes for Canadians across the country, whereas he sits back and attacks them and proposes absolutely nothing.
We are stepping up with $4 billion to accelerate the supply of homes across this country. We will continue to invest and work with partners instead of picking fights with everyone and hoping that it all settles itself.
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- Mar/22/23 2:36:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, no, actually the disagreement is that under our government housing was affordable, but under this government it is eye-poppingly expensive. That is the disagreement.
Let us just look at the facts. Canada has the fewest houses per capita of any country in the G7, even though we have the most land to build on. Why? We rank 64th in the OECD in the time it takes to get a building permit. Government red tape adds as much as $650,000 to each house in some cities, and the Prime Minister has made it worse by giving gatekeepers that block building more money. Why?
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- Mar/22/23 2:36:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this goes to the heart of the announcement we made last week on the housing accelerator fund, which works directly with municipalities to accelerate the delivery and construction of affordable housing.
What the member opposite would have us believe is that doing nothing to address the housing crisis would have somehow made it better. He criticizes us for the investment of billions of dollars in housing over the past years. Just think, if things are expensive now, how much worse it would have been had we had a Conservative government that continued to cross its arms and cut services to Canadians for the past eight years.
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