44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 3, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/3/23 3:15:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if members know this, but monthly mortgage payments on a typical family home are now a crushing $3,500 per month. When the leader of the official opposition was the housing minister, homes were attainable and affordable. Now it takes 25 years to save up for a down payment in a city like Toronto. Some families have even had to stretch the terms of their mortgages to a shocking 90 years. Some just cannot make their payments anymore.
Let us take Cora Cook, a Barrie, Ontario, woman, who bought a home in January 2022 and was forced to sell when her monthly mortgage payments jumped from $2,800 a year to just over $6,000 a year. After selling belongings and holding garage sales, Cora and her husband could not hang on anymore and were forced to sell.
For those clinging on to their homes, time is running out. Our common-sense plan will cut the waste and cap spending so Canadians can once again keep their homes.
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- Oct/3/23 3:32:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, whether they are seniors being renovicted, people who are unhoused and in an encampment or young families dreaming of owning their own home. The Liberals claim that they want to see more affordable homes built faster, yet they have rejected offers of municipal land and provincial and territorial money from British Columbia and Nunavut to build homes.
Talk is cheap. Empty promises will not house people. Will the Prime Minister commit to funding these projects to build homes that families desperately need?
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- Oct/3/23 3:34:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we will always respect the independence of the Bank of Canada, but we know that Canadians are worried about the cost of housing. That is why we are taking action on many fronts.
We are encouraging the construction of apartments by eliminating the GST on construction. We are removing obstacles so that more and more homes are built faster by working directly with the municipalities. We are helping Canadians save up to buy a home with the tax-free first home savings account.
We know that there is still a lot of work to be done. I invite every government across the country to take bold action with us to improve the cost of housing.
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- Oct/3/23 3:36:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in my first answer, let me just congratulate you in this historic role. It is historic for Canada.
While the Conservatives recite trite and misleading talking points, our government is acting for Canadians. With Bill C-56, we would be getting more homes built by lifting the GST on purpose-built rental, and we would be acting to stabilize grocery prices with historic changes to competition law that would bring competition to the grocery sector.
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- Oct/3/23 3:37:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the only people misleading Canadians are the Conservatives on that side of the House.
The reality is that Canada has the lowest deficit in the G7 and the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio. Our AAA rating has recently been reaffirmed by DBRS Morningstar. These are independent experts, not Conservative partisans.
We know we need to get more homes built. That is why we have lifted the GST on purpose-built rental and added another $20 billion to the financing CMCH has available for rental construction.
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- Oct/3/23 3:48:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me begin by offering my congratulations and all the success in your new role.
With respect to the hon. member's question, I will not diminish the very serious challenges that families are facing across this country. In order to address Canada's national housing crisis, we are taking a number of different measures. We are investing in affordable housing in a way that no government has over the course of my entire life. In addition, in order to contribute to the ability for builders to build more homes, we are cutting taxes and changing the way that cities build homes through the housing accelerator fund.
When I compare our plan to theirs, members can trust that we will get more homes built, and that has been confirmed by finance officials at committee.
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- Oct/3/23 3:49:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is telling in the member's question that no ideas on how we can build more homes have been introduced by the Conservatives.
With respect, we are moving forward with a plan that is cutting taxes for home builders. We are moving forward to increase the amount of money that we are going to contribute to help cities change the way that they build homes.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Hon. Sean Fraser: Mr. Speaker, as I hear members opposite yell, “We put a bill forward”, let us dig in on what it actually includes: A plan to raise taxes on home builders and cut funding for homebuilding. That will not lead to more homes getting built.
We have a plan to address the housing crisis. I hope the Conservatives join us.
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- Oct/3/23 3:51:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with great respect, my hon. colleague deeply mischaracterizes both the nature of the plan and the impact that it is going to have. He is clearly only reading one sub-bullet when he is looking to the measures that will build 5,000 homes. I would point him to the estimates that the cut on GST for apartment construction in this country would have, showing that we expect to see up to 300,000 homes built. I point him to the recent change to the Canada mortgage bond program, which is going to add 30,000 homes a year over the next decade, which is 300,000 homes.
I could continue, but if he reviews the measures we have put together in their totality, he will see it dwarfs the effort Conservatives are putting forward.
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