SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

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

Oct/17/23 12:04:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, what he just said is very interesting. He talked about the affordable housing we are losing in Canada. This brings me to a topic that does not come up very much when we talk about the housing crisis: the financialization of housing. We are talking about affordable housing because large investment trusts, often international, investment companies, are buying up affordable housing. Often, they demolish the housing, or they renovate it and then double the price. That is important. When the federal government withdrew from housing in 1993, this phenomenon did not really exist in Canada. Now, we see that between 20% and 30% of the housing stock is owned by these corporations. We do not see the government legislating against that. We will not be able to build the 3.5 million housing units. They will not appear out of thin air. We will have to protect affordability any way we can. I would like my colleague to elaborate. Are there any measures that could be taken right now to counter this financialization that is hurting Canada's housing market so badly here?

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Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mrs. Anna Roberts (King—Vaughan, CPC)

Oct/17/23 12:13:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, Everywhere I go, people come up to me and say, you know, we're losing faith in the Liberal Party... I've had people tell me they can't afford to buy groceries. They can't afford to heat their homes, and that's hard to hear from, especially seniors who live alone and tell me that they go around their house in the spring and winter time with a blanket wrapped around them 'cause they can't afford the home heating fuel and they can't afford to buy beef or chicken. It is heart-wrenching when you hear someone say that you. This is a quote from the lone Liberal member who was brave enough to vote for his constituents instead of this high-inflationary Prime Minister. These are the same sentiments I hear day after day as I tour the country hearing from seniors. Last week, I had the opportunity to spend time with a group of seniors from the Northumberland—Peterborough South area. Their concerns mirror the same concerns as our friends from the Atlantic coast. I will be sharing my time with one of my favourite MPs, the member for Calgary Forest Lawn. After eight years of the Liberal government, the Prime Minister has added more to the national debt than all previous prime ministers combined. A half a trillion dollars of inflationary deficits has directly led to a 40-year inflation high. Prior to budget 2023, the Minister of Finance said, “What Canadians want right now is for inflation to come down and for interest rates to fall. And that is one of our primary goals in this year’s budget: not pour fuel on the fire of inflation.” Then she proceeded to usher in $60 billion of new spending. In order to combat inflation, the Bank of Canada has been forced to increase interest rates 10 times in just 19 months. These rate increases have increased mortgage payments. Since the Prime Minister took office, monthly mortgage payments have increased 150% and now cost $3,500 on a typical family home. I want my colleagues in this place to think about a few statistics I found on the nesto mortgage company website. In Toronto, as of 2021, the average house price was just over $1 million. The down payment required to purchase a home was just in excess of $232,000. It would take an average person 42.2 years to save for the down payment. To make a comparison, it took roughly 4.2 years to save up for the minimum down payment on a home in Toronto 10 years ago when our country enjoyed a Conservative government. In Vancouver, there is a similar situation. The average cost of a home is just in excess of $1.2 million with a minimum down payment of $242,000. The time to save for a down payment in Vancouver is 44.3 years. Just 10 years ago, it took an average of only 5.2 years to afford the minimum down payment for a home in Vancouver. On June 5, CTV News Toronto reported that the National Bank of Canada released its housing affordability report, indicating that it will take Torontonians about 25 years to save for a down payment on a house and the qualifying income level to purchase a property is in excess of $236,000. Does the average Canadian earn $236,000? I do not think so. If this does not make it clear, this Prime Minister just is not worth the cost. Let us think about it. According to TransUnion, the average credit card balance for Canadians in the second quarter of 2023 was $4,185, which is up from $3,909 in the second quarter. That is up from average monthly credit card spending of almost $2,447 in the third quarter of 2022, which is up 17.3% from the same time in 2021, and up 21.8% from 2019. From another report, Canadian consumer debt has risen to $2.4 trillion, with an average debt load of approximately $21,131, excluding mortgage payments. Canadians are using credit cards more as there was a 9% increase in credit card balances in June 2023 compared to the same time last year. These trends are a repeat of the past. Let us reflect on the 1980s when the lending rate for a five-year fixed mortgage was 22.75%. This caused homeowners with mortgages to struggle with high interest payments, resulting in foreclosures. Let us do some comparisons. In 1981, the average price of a home was $110,000. At an interest rate of 22.75%, the monthly payment was just under $2,000. Today, the average price of a home in Toronto is $1.2 million. At an interest rate of 7%, the mortgage payment is $6,724. What was the similarity during these two periods? Can anyone guess? Both prime ministers shared the same last name. In my previous life as a bank manager and mortgage specialist, I witnessed the hardship of many Canadians, friends and neighbours who lost their homes to the inflationary, out-of-control spending by the Trudeau Liberal government.

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Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Ms. Leah Taylor Roy (Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, Lib.)

Oct/17/23 4:54:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise to represent my constituents, because cost of living, affordability, is a major issue for many of them. I hesitate to say that it is an honour to rise to speak to this motion. I want to start by saying that I find the opposition day motions put forward by the official opposition are, for the most part, very repetitive. They do not add to the debate. They do not add to trying to solve these problems for Canadians. Rather they seem to be yet another platform for Conservatives to repeat the gimmicky phrases they have come up with, the cute little phrases. They really do not seem to be addressing the issues. In fact, when I look at this opposition day motion that addresses the affordability crisis, what the Conservatives put forward as a solution is really not a solution at all. What they say to all those listening, those people who are struggling with the cost of living right now, is to ask for a pathway back to balanced budgets. If anybody thinks that is going to help Canadians who are struggling today, then they are sorely mistaken. People are struggling today in my riding. On this side of the House, we are working to put forward real programs, many of which my colleague before me has discussed. These motions simply serve to put Canadians down, to insult their intelligence, by putting forward half-truths and hoping that by repeating the same phrases over and over again, as is often done in question period, somehow this misinformation will convince Canadians that these are facts and not simply half-baked truths and beliefs, and political speech that is meant to hurt our country by making people feel badly about Canada itself. I find the negativity and the lack of true concern about coming up with real solutions for Canadians to be disheartening. I find it a waste of time. For a party that presumably puts a lot of emphasis on using scarce resources wisely, I find the time in question period and in opposition day motions is really an insult to this place and to Canadians. That is why I did not say it was an honour to rise to speak to this motion. Since I have risen to speak to this motion, I would like to address a few things. We all agree that there are major challenges facing Canadians. Most of the motion put forward referred to these challenges. Where we really differ is when it comes to what the cause of that is and what should be done about it. The Conservatives like to say, constantly, that the reason we have inflation in Canada is because of our deficits and because we are tackling climate change. However, common-sense Canadians can look around the world and see that inflation is not just a problem in Canada, it is a worldwide problem. In fact, there are many countries that do not have a price on pollution but have been suffering from inflation. We can also look at the fact that inflation was 8.1% a year ago, and it is now 4%. It has come down drastically. Yet, in that same time period, the price on pollution did not change. If their explanation for why inflation is happening is due to the price on pollution or the carbon tax, they need to look at the numbers. I have mentioned it before, but there seems to be a mistaken belief on that side of the House that, because something happens during the same period of time as something else, it is somehow attributable to that. Anyone who took introductory statistics understands the difference between correlation and causality, and because something occurs over a period of time, it does not mean it is caused by that. I wish the messaging would stop being so simplistic and based on polling of what slogan resonates with Canadians or gets them angry, and rather would try to address the real facts here. Inflation across Canada and the world has been caused by many things, and we all know that. It has been caused by the climate crisis, it has been caused by the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and it has been caused by the post-COVID economy. In fact, many economists say that this is a different kind of inflation because a lot of it is from the supply side as opposed to the demand side. Of course, as I am sure everyone knows, the inflationary government spending, if we want to call it that, contributes to the demand side, not the supply side. Therefore, much of this inflation has been caused by the contraction of supply as opposed to an increase in demand. Having hopefully corrected some of that, I also want to talk about the price on pollution. We know on this side of the House that we must battle climate change and that many of the inflationary pressures, the cost increases we are seeing today, have been driven by the climate crisis. I think it was only two weeks ago that many opposition members were quoting the price of lettuce, carrots and onions. The increase in those prices has been mainly driven by droughts in California. Romaine lettuce is mostly grown there. We can look at what experts are saying and they will tell us that this is why prices have gone up as much as they have. Tiff Macklem, whom the opposition likes to quote when blaming inflation on government spending, has said that the price on pollution is responsible for about a 0.15% increase in inflation. We are talking about inflation that has gone up by 6% or 7% and has come back down to 4%, but experts and economists would tell us that very little of that has been caused by the price on pollution. These same experts and many others would say that our price on pollution is one of the most effective and efficient ways to battle greenhouse gas emissions. Given that we have a climate action incentive rebate, most Canadians get back more than they pay, so when we talk about affordability, households are better off with this program. If an opposition day motion were to put forward some realistic programs, some plans that could contribute to tackling these problems and helping us improve the programs we have in place, it would be welcome. However, to hear the same rhetoric over and over again is tiresome, insulting and, quite frankly, a waste of time. The Conservatives should contribute to the programs we have in place or give us some ideas. We have, in fact, already incorporated a few ideas that have been put forward. We welcomed them. We want to better things for Canadians. We are fighting for Canadians every day, and we encourage the Conservatives to join us in doing the same.

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