SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 179 - Apr/18/23

Apr/18/23 12:47:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is an easy answer. We had house prices that were half of what they are now. However, I want to focus the answer to the member's question specifically on how we have more collaboration. In our region, we have an amazing group. Hastings County has put together a “7 in 7” plan where it is going to build 7,000 homes in seven years. It is going to do it by working with the municipalities, the province and innovative groups like Phil Spry and Bob Cottrell who have discovered how to put developers together with not-for-profits. The developer takes the risk and the not-for-profit runs the programs using the government. They have actually been able to build homes faster. Seven thousand homes in seven years, which I know the member for Kingston and the Islands will benefit from, is an innovative program that is going to benefit eastern Ontario. That is the kind of innovation we look at in the future—

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Context: House Hansard - 179 - Apr/18/23

Mr. Ryan Williams

Apr/18/23 12:49:00 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, yes, we need reforms in EI for sure, but let us get back to the subject at hand: We need homes for people. As I said in my speech, shelter, transitionary homes and affordable market rent are the three answers to housing. When we talk about mental health and addictions, what is nice about a transitionary home is that it actually provides those supports to residents to overcome addictions and to deal with mental health. We talk about everyday residents who have to wait sometimes six months just for one appointment with one counsellor for mental health. I agree that there is a mental health crisis in our country, but let us talk about it as it comes back to the street where all of that is compounded, especially because people do not have a place of their own. We need more supports and to focus on the three answers.

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Context: House Hansard - 179 - Apr/18/23

Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

Apr/18/23 12:49:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member said “build baby build” many times, which has a good ring to it, but I am concerned it is another Conservative slogan that is not actually based on fact. I wonder if the member could share his thoughts around the fact that we are seeing developers building all around us. We are seeing new units popping up, but the problem is that we are seeing more unaffordable homes, more unaffordable units, popping up around us, which is not going to resolve the issue that we are currently experiencing with the ongoing commodification of housing that has happened over the last 30 years by consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments. Would the member agree that in order to ensure that those he was referencing, including military, veterans and seniors, have access to the affordable housing they need, we need to see more social housing put into place, more affordable housing put into place, so everybody can have a place to call home?

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Context: House Hansard - 179 - Apr/18/23

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

Apr/18/23 3:37:16 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his speech. Unfortunately, one of the top issues right now is the housing crisis. He used about 22 seconds of his 10-minute speech to talk about it. That is more or less the equivalent of what is in the budget. Some 3.5 million homes need to be built in Canada over the next 10 years. The budget, which is 250 pages long, talks about it for a page and a half. That basically reflects how much of a priority this is for the government. Here is an interesting statistic. Yesterday, the National Housing Council, the body set up by the government to oversee the great national housing strategy, released a report with some very interesting information. Between 2011 and 2021, Canada lost over 550,000 units of housing that rented for $750 or less. Not only are we not building housing—according to this same organization, 35,000 units were built and 65,000 renovated, totalling 100,000—but 550,000 affordable units were lost in the last 10 years. How does my colleague explain the budget's near silence on this issue?

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