44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 17, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/17/23 12:03:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, when we look at the national housing strategy, there is a lot of fanfare. Some big numbers were announced. One of the really important things to note is that at the beginning of the housing strategy, the big number announced was actually a multiplier that took for granted a bunch of provincial funding that had not been committed. The Liberals were taking credit for money that had not even been announced, except unilaterally by the federal government on behalf of the provinces, which is something it had no right to do.
The national housing strategy has been a bit of a smokescreen from go. Yes, some units have been built along the way, but they pale in comparison to what we need. One of the compelling proof points of that is from Steve Pomeroy, who is a housing expert in Canada. He has said that for every one affordable unit we are building in Canada today we are losing 15. How do we make up the ground that has to be made up in order to get people out of tent cities and back into homes if we are losing 15 units of affordable housing for every one being built? We cannot do it. We are not even treading water in Canada today.
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- Oct/17/23 12:05:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his question. I would say that there have been two phases of significant federal disengagement from housing.
In the 1990s, the Liberals cancelled the Canadian housing strategy. Later, the Harper Conservatives made the decision not to renew operating funding for affordable housing mortgages once those mortgages matured. Since these buildings could longer offer affordable rents, large corporations began buying them up and raising rents.
It would be really helpful to have an acquisition fund for non-profit organizations, to make sure that it is not just big business that has the resources to buy these buildings. Other organizations that are committed to offering affordable rental housing need to be able to access these buildings and take over the work that the previous owners were no longer able to do.
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- Oct/17/23 12:09:29 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I completely understand what my colleague says when he says not to take this motion at face value, because Conservatives have a history of making it seem like they want to help but they do not. I have a specific example. When the Conservatives were in government in 2010, they made cuts to two things that were very important to indigenous peoples: funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and to the Native Women's Association of Canada. This was at a time when Nunavut had a Conservative MP.
I wonder if the member can explain why we must not trust this motion to be as it appears to be.
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- Oct/17/23 12:23:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the real carbon tax is the $83 billion the government is giving to oil companies between now and 2035. At the natural resources committee yesterday, the member for Lakeland responded to that ineptitude by asking the other members not to give the Suncor representative a hard time.
Worse still, a Conservative member apologized to Suncor on behalf of all Canadians because the committee was asking questions about what the company was doing with public money. If there is one thing that is not common sense, it is the $83 billion the government will be giving the greedy oil and gas industry between now and 2035.
If my colleague really cares about what happens to people who cannot afford groceries and rent, the first thing she should do is demand that the government stop funding the greedy oil and gas industry.
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- Oct/17/23 12:41:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for bringing up today the impact the housing crisis is having on women. I had a visit yesterday from some members of Parliament from the United Kingdom, and they were saying that the mortality rate of children is on the rise in the U.K. because women cannot find housing, so I just wanted to ask the member a question.
In 1993, Brian Mulroney ended all new federal funding for social housing construction. Does the member agree with that decision?
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- Oct/17/23 1:11:10 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, the Conservatives say that this motion is to help address housing so Canadians do not lose their homes. I do not think it is a great solution, but the Liberals have not done so well either.
I am glad she did not include URN on her list of investments that government has done, because URN does not do enough. There are still gaps in investments that need to happen. One of those gaps is to ensure that there is housing funding for the territorial governments. Territorial governments are not indigenous governments, so they would not be eligible to receive housing through URN.
I wonder if the member agrees that we need to ensure that territorial governments get a carve-out for housing.
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- Oct/17/23 2:44:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this summer, the CEO of the Suncor oil company told his shareholders that he was fed up with the fight against climate change. Poor thing. According to him, Suncor has been too focused on the energy transition and needs to get back to selling oil, which means producing more oil and more pollution.
However, the federal government renewed $83 billion in subsidies in the last two budgets, particularly with the intention of helping oil companies reduce their pollution. Suncor admits that it cannot be bothered to pollute less, but that it still wants taxpayers' money. Greed is part of its DNA.
When will the federal government cut public funding to Suncor?
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- Oct/17/23 2:45:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have good news for my colleague.
We have already cut fossil fuel subsidies. We are the first G20 country to do so. We did it two years sooner than all of the other partners. We even went a step further. We committed to eliminating public funding as well, unlike any other G20 nation, and we will do so by next year.
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- Oct/17/23 2:57:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians want a strong health care system that allows them and their loved ones to get the care they need when they need it. Last week, the government signed the first bilateral funding agreement with British Columbia, investing more than $1.2 billion over the next three years to improve access to family health services, support our health workers and increase mental health and substance use support in B.C.
Can the Minister of Health please update the House on how the recent agreement will help the health care system and impact the lives of British Columbians?
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