44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 17, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/17/23 10:07:53 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to present this petition.
Whereas women's shelters are sadly seeing an increase in demand, the high cost of living and the housing crisis have made it harder for women and children fleeing a violent home to find a place to live. At a time when the Liberal government is dramatically increasing spending on bureaucracy and consultants, it is cutting $145 million from women's shelters.
I am hoping the government will understand that women's shelters are in crisis right now, as we are seeing an economic crisis carry on that is causing a lot of problems for many Canadians. Hopefully the government will do something about it.
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- Oct/17/23 10:54:29 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, has the government already thrown in the towel when it comes to the housing crisis? We know that Quebec needs 1.2 million new housing units by 2030. The government has announced GST breaks on new housing construction, which may enable a few thousand units to be built. After 18 months, the government finally signed an agreement with Quebec to release $900 million in the housing accelerator fund. Again, that represents a few thousand housing units. Unfortunately, to really address this crisis, we should be building 200,000 housing units a year from now until 2030.
What is the plan? Where are the meaningful measures to address this crisis? Has the government already abandoned people to their fate in this housing crisis?
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- Oct/17/23 10:55:18 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course, we are working tirelessly to respond to the housing crisis. In fact, we were the first to acknowledge that there actually was a crisis. We put money on the table.
Yes, negotiations with Quebec took some time. I am glad we were able to reach an agreement, as my colleague mentioned. We signed an agreement with Quebec to transfer funds.
The money is there. We expect it to be used to build more housing. We will keep on keeping on.
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- 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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- Oct/17/23 2:31:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we agree that this is very much a humanitarian situation. The international community must take humanitarian action, but it must do other things too. The Prime Minister's answer was long, but what he meant was that, no, he will not be part of the group, which has a lot more power to influence and intervene than even the G7 does in this context.
Because I want to know more and understand better, yesterday I suggested that the Prime Minister invite all party leaders to meet and discuss these matters privately so we can all be on the same page and more easily build consensus around this crisis, which is bigger than our debates here and our current political issues. Will that happen?
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- Oct/17/23 2:49:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis, as we know, is underpinned ultimately by a crisis in supply or the lack thereof. What the government is doing is partnering with municipalities across the country. For federal dollars, municipalities have the chance to build more. In London, for example, 2,000 more units of housing will be built in exchange for a $74-million investment.
What we have also done is to put forward Bill C-56, which, if members look at it, is a serious bill that would remove the cost of taxes, of GST specifically, for rental construction. The Conservatives have nothing to say on that.
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- Oct/17/23 2:50:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is directly related to inflationary spending. This inflationary crisis is also impacting communities all across this country that are losing volunteers. Specifically, some volunteer firefighters have told me that they are unable to afford their mortgages, so they have stopped volunteering and have taken on second and third jobs just to make ends meet.
When will the Prime Minister admit that after eight years of the current government, they have failed Canadians and they are just not worth the cost?
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- Oct/17/23 6:33:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am glad the member talked about an integrated approach because the Portuguese model is a coordinated, integrated, compassionate model. Here in Canada, we do not have coordination. There are no resources. In fact, we are in a health crisis.
I will say this: The Liberals' incremental approach costs lives in a health crisis. The disinformation from the Conservatives costs lives in a health crisis. What we need is action. We need a timeline to invest in harm reduction, treatment, recovery, prevention, education and a safer supply to replace the toxic street drugs.
Where is the plan? Where is the timeline? Where is the compassion? When is this going to be a priority? When are they truly going to end the stigma? Do I have to keep coming back here every week to fight the same fight? When is the plan going to be tabled in this House of Commons? The families deserve it.
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