44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2023 10:00AM
- May/2/23 4:21:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of the things undermining the provision of affordable housing is that when privately owned affordable housing buildings come on the market and are flipped, they often become less affordable for tenants. This is causing us to move in the opposite direction than we need to be moving in.
One of the things the government in British Columbia did was create an acquisition fund so that non-profit housing providers could buy housing projects and keep them affordable. It is something we have advocated for on a national level.
I am wondering why the member's government has not proposed something similar. If not that approach, what approach does her government see for ensuring that we do not lose existing affordable housing to private developers?
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- May/2/23 4:56:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as someone who also comes from the municipal sector, like my friend across the way, one clause stood out to me, around clawing back infrastructure dollars from municipalities that delay housing construction. It feels like something that perhaps makes for good politics, but poor policy. Of course, not every housing development is created equal and municipal governments are tasked with deliberating on very complex issues, whether they are environmental, infrastructure or social issues.
When it comes to implementing this statement around clawing back money from municipalities that impose delays, how does he foresee the federal government defining delays in a way that is fair to municipalities of different sizes and that accounts for the fact that many housing developments are quite complex? We could create, in this case, a bit of the opposite effect to what we are trying to do. If we are clawing back the infrastructure dollars that are needed to fund the infrastructure that then empowers and creates the housing developments that are so needed, how do we avoid those unintended consequences of—
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- May/2/23 5:39:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member for Bow River talked a lot about working in partnership with municipalities, yet I think many municipal partners would be quite shocked that their infrastructure funding would be clawed back by this Conservative motion.
Has the Conservative Party consulted with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities or any of the provincial associations? If so, what was their response to this policy proposal?
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- May/2/23 9:07:56 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I was reading through the calls for justice from the national inquiry, and I just want to cite one of them:
3.2 We call upon all governments to provide adequate, stable, equitable, and ongoing funding for Indigenous-centred and community-based health and wellness services that are accessible and culturally appropriate, and meet the health and wellness needs of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The lack of health and wellness services within Indigenous communities continues to force Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people to relocate in order to access care.
Representing a remote area of northwest British Columbia that I know the minister is familiar with, I know this issue affects so many people. There are not enough wellness facilities for the people who need the help. People are forced to travel to faraway communities, often to the Lower Mainland of B.C. Those services are not accessible enough.
The Northern First Nations Alliance has a vision for a healing centre that would provide culturally appropriate care in communities in northwest B.C. They are struggling to get the funding support they need to provide this help to people in northwest B.C.
My question to the minister is a very simple one. Can they expect financial support from her government in a timely way to ensure this facility gets up and running as soon as possible?
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- May/2/23 10:00:28 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the hon. member spoke quite a bit about repeat offenders and about the tough-on-crime approach Conservatives like to talk about these days.
We are here on Red Dress Day to talk about murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, and I think informing our discussion must be the calls for justice from the national inquiry, which took place just a few years ago. I have read through those calls for justice. When they come to police reforms in our justice system, I do not see calls for the kinds of changes the member talked about in her speech. How does she reconcile the gap between what she is talking about this evening and what we are hearing from the national inquiry and those calls for justice?
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- May/2/23 10:27:00 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the member mentioned public transit, and I think safe transportation is one of the things we can do to ensure that people in our communities, like indigenous women and girls and two-spirited people, are safe as they move between towns and cities, especially in rural Canada.
Since Greyhound cancelled its service in Canada, we have potentially the worst passenger service in 100 years, combined with the failure of our passenger rail system. From the Minister of Transport, we have seen a real neglect of this file and a failure to show the kind of federal leadership we need, especially in providing bus service across provincial borders.
Some provinces have neglected rural transit entirely. Luckily, my province of British Columbia is not one of them. The B.C. government has invested quite heavily in northwest B.C. in transit services.
We need to see federal leadership. I wonder if the member could provide her thoughts on what we need to do to convince the government to ensure that the gap left by Greyhound is filled as quickly as possible with affordable, safe, reliable and interconnected bus service.
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