44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 21, 2023 02:00PM
- Jun/21/23 2:36:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have been working with indigenous communities right across the country on responding to their needs. The situation in Grassy Narrows has gone on for far too long. It is one that we continue to engage in, working closely with local leadership and moving forward on giving the kinds of supports necessary. We recognize the scale of the challenges across the country and we will continue to walk the road of reconciliation, in partnership, in meaningful, serious ways as we always have.
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- Jun/21/23 2:37:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister expects to be judged on his promises rather than his results.
The results are these. Eight years ago, housing was affordable, taking a modest 40% of average income to pay mortgages on an average house, which is something that is now up to 60%. The average cost of a house has nearly doubled. The cost of a mortgage payment has doubled. The cost of monthly rent has doubled. It is double trouble after eight years of this Prime Minister.
Unfortunately, the Prime Minister wants to keep doing what caused the problem in the first place. Will he instead stop funding gatekeeping that blocks construction and bring down the deficits that are driving up mortgage rates?
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- Jun/21/23 2:38:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the member opposite talks about what happened eight years ago because when we formed government, we realized that the previous federal government had done nothing on housing for close to 10 years. It had removed the federal government from any leadership role or partnerships around housing, which is part of why we have faced real challenges over the past decade in responding to the growth and needs of housing across this country. It is why we also put into place in 2017 a national housing strategy that has led millions of Canadians to get into new residences and refurbished homes across the country. It is why we have continued to invest and step up—
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- Jun/21/23 2:38:47 p.m.
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The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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- Jun/21/23 2:38:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's main criticism seems to be that the previous Conservative government did not hold enough meetings or spend enough money. What we actually delivered was affordable housing. The average house cost was $450,000 at the time. The average rent back then was about 50% of what it is today.
Now, Canada has the fewest houses per capita in the G7. We have fewer houses per capita than when the Prime Minister took office eight years ago at a time when house construction actually dropped off. Therefore, will he get out of the way, let Canadians build and let them put a roof overhead?
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- Jun/21/23 2:39:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we all remember well that the previous Conservative government did not spend enough money investing in Canadians, did not support our veterans, did not support builds and infrastructure, cut and slashed programs, cut programs for seniors and for youth and raised the retirement age to 67 so that they could balance the budget in a fictional way for an election. Canadians saw through that and had the Conservatives lose that election. We have stepped up to continue to invest in Canadians, continue to invest in housing and continue to invest in supports that have seen the economy grow. I have seen record job creation and record numbers of people—
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- Jun/21/23 2:40:10 p.m.
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The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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- Jun/21/23 2:40:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister says that his real criticism is that our programs were not expensive enough for the taxpayers. The fact is, it is bad enough for him to fail; it is even worse for him to fail expensively and that is what he has done. He does have an $80-billion housing program that has left us with the fewest houses per capita in the G7, even though we have the most land to build on, which is fewer houses per capita than when he took office. We now have almost double the house price in Canada versus the U.S., where they have 10 times the people to house on a smaller land mass. Why does the Prime Minister not stop judging himself by how much he can spend instead of judging by how much he can get done?
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- Jun/21/23 2:40:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives consistently get up and say that what we really need to grow the economy and help Canadians is cuts: cuts in the investments we are making for Canadians, cuts in the programs that are helping Canadians afford new homes and cuts in the programs that are incentivizing municipalities to increase density and accelerate house building. The reality is, that proposal of cuts and austerity is exactly why the Conservatives had such an underwhelming night on Monday night in those by-elections. Canadians know they need a government that has their backs. That is what we are doing.
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- Jun/21/23 2:41:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just because the Prime Minister makes housing more expensive to taxpayers does not excuse the fact that he has made it more expensive for homebuyers. I will give an example: He has tried to plagiarise my message on the need to get housing built by inventing a $4-billion accelerator program. Since that time, housing construction has decelerated.
This year, according to the Prime Minister's own housing agency, there will be fewer houses built than last year: 19% fewer. Why will he not actually take my policy, which is to link the number of dollars cities get to the number of houses that get completed?
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- Jun/21/23 2:42:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the $4-billion housing accelerator fund was actually a corner piece of our last election campaign, but apparently the current leader of the official opposition was too busy sharpening his knives to pay attention to our platform in the last election. We have demonstrated a level of commitment and focus on delivering for Canadians, while he continues to propose cuts.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Jun/21/23 2:42:47 p.m.
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The noise level is starting to go up; I understand this is like a year-end for students in a classroom, and everyone is excited, but I am going to ask everyone to just take a deep breath.
We will go to the Leader of the Opposition, and let us keep everything respectful.
The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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- Jun/21/23 2:43:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister says there is no room for savings in his sumptuous government spending, but I found some. For example, he gave CMHC $26 million in bonuses for making housing less affordable; he gave $181,000 for the Governor General's travel; $116 million to McKinsey, a company that supports him but actually helped cause the opioid crisis; $54 million for the ArriveCAN app; and $6,000 for one night in a hotel for the Prime Minister.
Does he not think we can pass on that spending and put the money back in Canadians' pockets?
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- Jun/21/23 2:44:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what the Conservative leader continues to put forward is a program of cutting programs for Canadians. Whether it is billions of dollars for child care at $10 a day right across the country that he continues to campaign against, or whether it is investments in a climate action incentive that both puts a price on pollution and puts more money back in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadians that he would cancel, that is money in the pockets of families in his riding that he would he cancel.
Whether it is by moving forward on things like a grocery rebate or the doubling of the GST tax credit that has helped out 11 million Canadians and will continue to support seniors and young people, we will—
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- Jun/21/23 2:44:40 p.m.
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The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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- Jun/21/23 2:44:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, here is a real plan to make housing affordable: Balance the budget to bring down inflation and interest rates on Canadians' mortgages; require that cities increase the number of permitted homes by 15% in order to get more infrastructure money and pay the money out once the houses are completed and the keys are in doors; require every federally funded transit station to have high-density housing all around it; and sell off 6,000 underutilized federal buildings to convert them into affordable housing and use the proceeds to reduce the deficit.
How is that for a plan?
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- Jun/21/23 2:45:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, many of the elements in his supposed plan are things that we are already very much working on. The one place we disagree is his proposal to cut programs, to cut supports to low-income Canadians and to cut supports like the housing benefit that he not only voted against but delayed passage of in the House, when we were offering a $500 top-up to low-income Canadians. He has consistently stood against those kinds of supports and investments in Canadians, offering instead cuts and austerity at a time when Canadians need continued support.
On fiscal responsibility, we are still at the top of the class in the G7.
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- Jun/21/23 2:46:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the environmental motion that the Bloc Québécois got the House to adopt was about the forest fires.
The Prime Minister himself supported the motion, which recognizes that the federal government must do more to combat climate change. I would like to remind him how he voted before we talk about oil and gas. Right now, his government is assessing whether it will approve 16 Suncor projects to drill for oil off the coast of Newfoundland.
Does the Prime Minister agree that doing more to combat climate change also means saying no to these types of oil and gas projects?
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- Jun/21/23 2:46:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is not like we are in the process of approving drilling in places like Anticosti Island. We are here to keep defending the fight against climate change, and we recognize that the world will still need oil and gas for a number of years.
Striking that balance has helped us reduce emissions for the first time in the Canadian government's history. We are on track to meet our Paris and Glasgow targets. We will continue to show leadership and responsibility by fostering green economic growth for—
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- Jun/21/23 2:47:21 p.m.
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The hon. member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia.
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