44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 7, 2024 02:00PM
- Feb/7/24 2:13:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after years of the Prime Minister, life has never been so expensive. Rent has doubled and mortgages have doubled. New home construction was down again last year, and the housing bureaucrats of the government predict that it is going to be down again in 2024. The Liberal-NDP cost of living crisis is forcing Canadians to choose every month between paying their rent, putting food on the table and heating their homes.
Of course, the Prime Minister is performing in his favourite of plays. He criss-crosses the country, taking pictures, spending even more money and delivering worse results. The out-of-touch Prime Minister is paying city gatekeepers all across Canada for a picture and a promise that Liberals will do better. An entire generation of Canadians who are locked out of home ownership are living the pain every day of the government's endless empty promises.
A Conservative government will ignite action in cities by tying federal funding to housing results, not promises. Only a Conservative government will bring it home.
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- Feb/7/24 2:23:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, this Prime Minister is not worth the cost of housing, which has doubled since he promised to make it more affordable. In fact, we have now learned that, according to Rentals.ca, rent has increased by more than 20% in two years across the country. In other words, it costs nearly $400 more.
Will the Prime Minister cancel his policies that caused the crisis, stop funding the bureaucrats who are preventing construction and eliminate the deficits to lower interest rates?
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- Feb/7/24 2:24:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it was the Conservative member for Dufferin—Caledon who described our ambitious approach to housing best when he said that our Minister of Housing seems to come out every day with a new program, a new announcement or a new cheque for Canadians. He is right. We have worked hard week after week to conclude new agreements under the housing accelerator fund and to provide new tools to accelerate the construction of affordable housing.
While the Conservative leader insults the municipalities, we remain focused on our goal to accelerate housing construction.
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- Feb/7/24 2:24:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are announcements, programs and cheques, but no housing. That is the only thing missing. People cannot live in the programs and announcements of this Prime Minister, who is not worth the cost. Housing starts are in free fall, down 28% in December relative to the previous December.
Will the Prime Minister put an end to programs that are driving up interest rates and creating bloated bureaucracies so that we can build housing?
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- Feb/7/24 2:25:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the only thing the Conservative leader is offering is insults and more insults aimed at elected officials from Quebec. He described the home of a family in Niagara as a shack. He is using the homeless as accessories for political photo ops.
The reality is that a responsible leader will take action to invest in communities and housing. That is what we are doing by eliminating the GST on the construction of new apartments and by making funding announcements, including $900 million for Quebec to invest in housing.
We are here to invest and build. He is here to hurl insults.
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- Feb/7/24 2:26:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are hundreds of millions of dollars for bureaucracy. We do not need bureaucracy, which has grown by 50% since this Prime Minister took office. We need housing.
According to his housing agency, there will be a shortage of 3.5 million homes. However, this week, the CBC said that there will be a shortage of five million homes, since we expect massive population growth and a drop in construction.
Where are those five million families going to live?
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- Feb/7/24 2:26:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, he talks about bureaucracy, but, on the contrary, we are investing in municipalities to reduce red tape and speed up housing construction. We have made about 30 housing accelerator announcements across the country to build more housing faster, providing for greater density, better zoning, faster approval to use vacant land and more affordable homes.
We are there to make real investments, while he would rather insult people.
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- Feb/7/24 2:27:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, those are the same promises he made eight years ago before he doubled housing costs. He is not worth the cost of housing, which is up 100%. In the last two years alone, according to Rentals.ca, rent is up 20% or $400 for the average family. Now we learn that construction is in free-fall, down 28% last December versus the December before.
Will he stop funding bureaucracy and driving up interest rates, so we can bring homes Canadians can afford?
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- Feb/7/24 2:28:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our housing ambition can be best summed up by the Conservative member for Dufferin—Caledon who said that it seems that every day our Minister of Housing has a new program, a new announcement or a new cheque for Canadians. That is exactly right.
We continue to work hand in hand with Canadians and with municipalities across the country, municipalities he would rather insult, to get more homes built faster. The investments we are making, including things like taking the GST off purpose-built rental housing, which the Conservatives voted against, will continue to create more homes for Canadians right across the country.
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- Feb/7/24 2:29:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just last week I was in Kitchener–Waterloo making an announcement for the housing accelerator program for Waterloo.
What the Leader of the Opposition seems to have missed is that we were standing in a freshly completed building for seniors. In fact, $33 million of funding from the federal government a few years ago allowed that building to be built today.
We are building things today that people are moving into in the coming weeks. We are announcing how we are building things for tomorrow, while he just chooses to insult Canadians, insult mayors and insult our intelligence.
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- Feb/7/24 2:58:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost of housing, which has doubled since he promised to lower it. Now, we have a brand new phenomenon: the middle-class homeless. In fact, according to the executive director of the Royal Canadian Legion of Nova Scotia, members of the Canadian Forces are now forced to live in tents and cars and to couch surf. There are 30 homeless encampments in Halifax after eight years of the Prime Minister.
Why would the Prime Minister then plan to go ahead with a $450-a-year rent increase for our armed forces members, who are already forced to live in tents?
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- Feb/7/24 2:58:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, military members and their families are a priority, and we are taking steps to ensure that they are supported. We are investing $445 million over the coming years to tackle the supply of military housing.
When the Conservatives had an opportunity to support our military personnel, they chose not to. The Conservatives stood up in this House and voted against supporting our men and women in uniform just last December.
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- Feb/7/24 3:12:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the New Democrats also promised affordable housing when they sold out their constituents and signed on to a coalition with the leader of the Liberals. However, since that time the rent is up well over 20% as they fund more bureaucracy to block homes and deficits that drive up interest rates, so much so that Tim Chen, a student in Vancouver, actually needs to commute to university from Calgary. Yes, he has to fly back to Calgary where he can afford the rent under a Conservative government and then fly over to Vancouver in order to study. How crazy is it that he has to commute across—
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- Feb/7/24 3:13:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition likes to talk about the challenges Canadians are facing, and while we are busy solving them, he is proposing nonsensical solutions.
Let us talk about the Conservative leader's housing plan. It would not build homes fast enough. It would not reach enough cities. It would create unnecessary bureaucracy. He would also rip up our housing accelerator agreements, which are unlocking half a million new homes, and would put the GST back on apartment construction.
Housing experts like Mike Moffatt say his plan is exceptionally weak and a sign that the “Conservatives don't understand the...scale of the housing crisis.”
We will take no lessons from—
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- Feb/7/24 3:13:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the results speak for themselves. When I was the housing minister, rent was $950. It is now over $2,000. When I was the housing minister, the average mortgage payment on a newly purchased home was $1,400. It is now over $3,500.
My common-sense plan would require cities to permit 15% more homebuilding as a condition of getting federal money. It would require that they build housing around transit stations rather than having empty fields there. It would require the sale of 6,000 federal buildings and thousands of acres of federal land to build.
Why will the Prime Minister not build homes instead of building bureaucracy?
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- Feb/7/24 3:18:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just a few days ago, we reinforced and extended our foreign homebuyer ban to make sure that homes in Canada are used by Canadians to live in, not as investment vehicles for foreign entities or foreign owners.
This is part of our broad plan, which invests in more housing, that increases supply and ensures that families are able to afford the future they want to build for their kids in their communities right across the country. We are stepping up on housing. We will continue to do so while the Conservatives have no plan.
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- Feb/7/24 7:52:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, today I want to speak about the fact that so many Canadians are suffering from losing or potentially losing their housing.
Recently in the House, I asked the housing minister what the government was going to do about keeping seniors in their rental homes as many of the affordable rental homes for seniors are being gutted for luxury condos. Luxury condo developers are buying up land, getting it rezoned and upzoned, and displacing the people who have lived in those homes for 10, 20, 30 years, and sometimes longer.
I was at a redevelopment where a 70-year-old senior asked if I could help find a long-term care home, because a developer had come and bought up that low-rise rental housing and there was nowhere for that senior to go.
I was talking to an educational assistant in her 60s who wants to retire, but is being displaced in my community of Port Moody—Coquitlam. She told me that she has nowhere to go. She has spent her entire career supporting families in this community, sibling after sibling. She loves the community, but is being pushed out by greed.
I think about the fact that the government continues to miss the mark on supporting and protecting rental homes. Conservatives lost 800,000 affordable homes. Liberals have done nothing to make up for those losses and it is affecting people on the ground.
I also want to talk about transit. We know that we need more public transit investment. The Liberal government is so far behind on its investments in communities, it would much rather spend its money on greedy CEOs who want new freezers than make sure that EAs and the seniors who have lived in our communities forever are being displaced. That is where the Liberals are focused. That is what they want to do.
Therefore, I am here today to ask the Liberal government this. Why it is so hard for it to invest in communities and people? Why is it missing the boat on transit? The Metro Vancouver mayors have been here advocating for a transit investment. The infrastructure minister said that they will get it two years from now. That is not good enough. If they do not get the money for two years, they cannot even build for another two on top of that.
What is the Liberal government doing to make sure that communities are kept whole, and that people have a place to live and transit to use?
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- Feb/7/24 7:55:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is quite the contrary. The government has made historic investments in transit infrastructure.
Though my prepared remarks and the question were originally based on housing, I am happy to have a conversation with the hon. member on the transit investments not only in British Columbia, but throughout the country.
The Government of Canada shares the hon. member's concern with respect to housing that far too many Canadians are struggling to keep a roof over their head, and those affected most are our most vulnerable neighbours. That is why we are urgently addressing this issue.
Finding solutions to Canada's housing crisis is one of our top priorities. We are already making deep investments in affordable housing through the national housing strategy. This $82-billion plan focuses, first and foremost, on providing housing for our most vulnerable neighbours: women and children fleeing family violence, seniors, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, those dealing with mental health and addiction issues, veterans and young adults.
The rapid housing initiative, for example, is expected to create more than 15,500 permanent affordable homes across the country. These homes are being built rapidly to address the most urgent needs of those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Several cities in my colleague's province have already benefited from this funding, including Vancouver, Surrey and Burnaby.
The national housing co-investment fund is another program geared toward helping our most vulnerable populations. It provides low-cost loans and contributions to non-profit organizations to build affordable housing. It has already committed funding to build close to 40,000 new homes and repair more than 126,000 existing homes.
In addition, our new housing accelerator fund will provide incentives to municipalities to make the changes they need to get more homes built faster. This will help clear up red tape and make the zoning changes needed to quickly get more shovels in the ground.
At the same time, we know more must be done because, while the NHS is on track to meet its goals, it is not enough. Far too many Canadians continue to struggle to find adequate and affordable housing. We are rolling up our sleeves and working even harder and smarter with partners across the housing sector to make a difference.
The recently announced GST exemption and additional financing available through Canada Mortgage Bonds recently announced by Finance Canada will also help spur construction of purpose-built rentals. This will go a long way to addressing the shortage of rental homes, bringing down rents for middle-income and low-income Canadians alike.
I invite my colleague and all members of this House to work with their communities to make the most of the national housing strategy programs and other initiatives.
I also invite all members to stay tuned for news of more of the measures we will be introducing to address Canada's urgent housing shortage and bring back housing affordability for all.
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- Feb/7/24 7:59:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is interesting that the hon. member would get up to criticize a member for reading from notes, when she was holding a note in her own hand and reading from it; unfortunately that is what we are dealing with tonight.
She did have a very good question on housing, with respect to vulnerable people. I agree; more needs to be done. The government has proposed many measures. I look forward to her community's stepping up and applying. I look forward to more housing announcements throughout the country, especially for seniors, whom she addressed in her question and many of whom are at risk. We are ready to work across the aisle to get the projects built.
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