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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 194

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 10, 2023 02:00PM
  • May/10/23 2:37:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, since the Prime Minister promised to lower the cost of housing, the cost of an average down payment has doubled, the cost of a mortgage payment has doubled, and the cost of the average rent in Canada's 10 largest cities has doubled. What did the Prime Minister do for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the agency responsible for housing? He increased the bonuses paid to executives. The fact is, 100% of the executives received a bonus, which translates into $25 million in bonuses paid by people who are buying homes. Why are Canadians being asked to pay twice?
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  • May/10/23 2:37:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition keeps talking about this, but he is not offering any solutions. The only solution we have heard from the Conservatives is to cut taxes for the owners of large buildings. On our side, we are helping Canadians save for their first home, including through the first-time home buyer incentive and the tax-free first home savings account. We are investing in the construction and repair of more housing, including by helping municipalities accelerate the construction of 100,000 new homes, and the list goes on.
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  • May/10/23 2:39:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while the only plan the Conservatives put forward for housing is cuts to programs and cuts to investments, we are helping Canadians save up for their first home, including with the first-time homebuyer incentive and the tax-free first home savings account. We are investing in building and repairing more homes, including supporting municipalities to fast-track the creation of 100,000 new homes. We are ensuring that homes are used as homes, by curbing unfair practices that drive up prices, including banning foreign homebuyers and a federal anti-flipping rule, which, unfortunately, is being filibustered by Conservatives, who do not want to see the budget pass with measures to help Canadians right across the board.
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  • May/10/23 2:39:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, actually, we are blocking the disastrous inflationary budget, which would cost an extra $4,200 for every family in Canada. He says he wants to accelerate home building. In fact, his own housing agency says that, this year, home construction will go down by 50,000 homes. That is a one-third reduction of the already pitiful numbers from last year. In other words, we are building fewer houses while bringing in more people. This housing crisis is getting worse because of his gatekeeping. Why will he not get out of the way so that we can bring homes that workers can afford?
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  • May/10/23 2:40:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the only plan the Conservatives have on housing is to pick fights with municipalities and with provinces and ensure cuts to programs, which will prevent people from getting homes. We have continued to step up on investing and repairing more homes, including supporting municipalities to fast-track the creation of 100,000 homes. We are tying access to infrastructure funding for provinces and territories to housing supply. We are converting surplus federal lands to affordable housing. We will continue to step up to support Canadians with a broad plan, with plenty of different measures to make sure we are going at the housing challenge from all angles, contrary to the Conservatives, who have no plan.
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  • May/10/23 2:43:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, since launching our national housing strategy in 2017, we have seen several million Canadians access new housing because of federal investments. We realize that much more needs to be done, but what we are seeing from the Conservatives is that they are picking fights with municipalities. They believe that cuts to programs for Canadians will magically help. They have no plan for fighting the housing crisis. We have a detailed plan that we are implementing with a budget that they are blocking.
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  • May/10/23 2:43:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my plan has been, for over a year, that we should link the number of dollars big cities get for infrastructure to the number of houses they allow to get built, so that we speed up and lower the cost of building permits, that we should require every federally funded transit station to have high-density housing around and on top, and that we should sell off federal buildings to turn them into housing. He has tried to plagiarize that today, which is flattering, but it is interesting to note that his own housing agency predicts a 32% reduction in the number of houses built, a 50,000-unit decline. Why will the Prime Minister not put his action where his words now are, get out of the way and let—
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  • May/10/23 2:45:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us look at the respective records here. The Conservative Party campaigned in the last election on a single element of a housing plan, which was to give tax breaks to wealthy landlords in hopes of selling their buildings. That is not a plan to help Canadians. Our plan, which we have been delivering on since 2017 with the national housing strategy, is about $70-billion worth of investments, while working in partnership with municipalities, working in partnership with provinces and territories, linking investments and infrastructure to densification, and moving forward on incentives to create better zoning so we can build more homes for more Canadians.
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  • May/10/23 2:55:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the price for an unfurnished one-bedroom rental home in metro Vancouver has climbed to $3,000 a month. Families, students and seniors in Vancouver cannot afford to live there. The housing crisis has only gotten worse under the Liberal government. The government has allowed greedy corporate landlords to buy up homes, hike rents and make it impossible for Canadians to secure affordable housing. When are the Liberals going to crack down on corporate landlords and make housing truly affordable?
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  • May/10/23 2:55:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have taken significant steps on supporting low-income renters, including a $500 housing benefit top-up, which the Conservatives voted against and tried to delay. We are investing to rapidly increase the supply of affordable rental units. We are introducing measures to end rent evictions. That is on top of the significant measures we are working with municipalities on to create 100,000 new homes over the coming years as we accelerate the processes of zoning and permitting. We are doing that hand in hand with municipalities by respecting them, instead of by fighting with them as the Conservatives proposed. We know that collaboration is the way to get things done.
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