44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 8, 2024 11:00AM
- Apr/8/24 2:24:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are going to invest in Canadians. That is why we are going to help every generation move forward, especially young Canadians, by building more homes faster and by making life more affordable.
This Conservative leader does not understand affordability, does not understand housing, does not understand the economy and does not understand the environment. Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed. We are putting fairness front and centre.
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- Apr/8/24 2:26:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is laughable when I hear the Conservative leader talk about affordability. He mentioned in a previous question some concerns he has around our housing policy. His plan to build more homes is to cut investments in homebuilding and to raise taxes on those who are building homes. When it comes to actually changing the ways cities build homes, his deputy leader held a press conference to explicitly declare that the Conservatives were siding with the NIMBYs when it comes to zoning reform.
We are going to do what is necessary to put money on the table to build more affordable housing, create market conditions to get more homes built and change the way that cities build homes so we can solve the housing crisis.
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- Apr/8/24 2:27:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is interesting because he has actually put his plan on the record. His plan includes putting the GST back on apartment construction for hundreds of thousands of middle-class homes in this country.
He has one of the worst records of anyone in the past decade when it comes to getting homes built, from when he had the position responsible for housing in Parliament. While he was minister, they built exactly zero new apartments, zero co-operative units and only six affordable housing units across the entire country.
We are helping get hundreds of thousands of homes built in this country, and we will do what it takes to solve the crisis once and for all.
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- Apr/8/24 2:32:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is very important to invest in building a greater number of more affordable housing units more quickly.
We have been making the investments necessary to ensure that we can solve the housing crisis. We are working at the same time to help grow the economy as we put money on the table, as we announced this week, to create an acquisition fund for non-profits that are going to maintain affordability permanently. That is on top of the affordable housing fund, which is investing billions of dollars to put a roof over the heads of the most vulnerable.
We will do what it takes to make sure everyone in this country has a safe and affordable place to call home.
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- Apr/8/24 2:38:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last week I was in Trois‑Rivières, a city with a vacancy rate of 0.4%. A new report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, shows that construction is going to plummet over the coming year. CMHC therefore expects that demand will drive up the cost of housing. That is outrageous.
Does the Prime Minister realize that people are going to end up on the street because of his senseless policies?
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- Apr/8/24 2:38:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is quite right to call attention to the cost and affordability of housing, including in the Quebec City area. That is why it is so surprising that the Conservatives oppose our investments in affordable housing, including social housing in the Quebec City area.
First, they may have noticed that we announced just a few weeks ago that we are going to meet affordable housing construction objectives in the Quebec City area for the first time since 2011. Second, as far as I know, they have yet to apologize for the accusations of incompetence and the insults they hurled at Quebec municipalities, including the City of Quebec.
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- Apr/8/24 2:39:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if my colleague is looking for photo ops, I invite him to come with me to visit the housing project in his riding called Le Monterosso. He has not been seen in the last few weeks, since the project was announced. That was mentioned during the press conference with mayor Bruno Marchand.
The member seems to be forgetting that hundreds of housing units have been built in his own riding, versus the six affordable housing units that his Conservative leader built across the entire country during his time as housing minister.
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- Apr/8/24 2:40:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if Ottawa wanted to speed up housing construction in Quebec, it would give Quebec the money for housing.
We are ready. We have our own permanent programs. We are actually the only ones in Canada who do. The Liberals could easily announce an unconditional transfer, but no, they are threatening to withhold that money from Quebec if it refuses to accept their conditions and fights with the federal government until 2025. We are in the midst of a housing crisis. People want housing, they do not want a fight with the federal government.
Why not just give Quebec its share, with no strings attached, so we can get to work now, not in 2025?
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- Apr/8/24 2:40:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is looking for a fight, but I am looking for a solution. He was asking that same question before the housing accelerator fund. We talked and negotiated, and now we have a $1.8‑billion agreement to build affordable housing in all the provinces.
We will keep making the necessary investments to fix the housing crisis in Quebec and across the country.
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- Apr/8/24 2:41:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is not just a question of jurisdiction; it is more serious than that.
When the feds get involved, the delays pile up. What the Prime Minister is saying is true: Quebeckers who are struggling to find housing want governments to work together. That said, the federal government is not working with anyone. Even before we heard the details of their measures, the Liberals announced that they are willing to pick a fight over this until January 2025 in order to impose their conditions.
Who exactly is that helping right now? How does it help anyone to know that there will not be any housing starts before 2025 because the federal government refuses to work as part of a team?
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- Apr/8/24 2:42:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 5.8 million housing units are needed by 2030, and the Liberals still find time to pick a fight, instead of taking action.
If their priority was to speed up housing construction, they would give the money to Quebec City. That is why many people are wondering whether the Liberal priority is to speed up the construction of housing or whether it is really to slow down how fast they are plummeting in the polls. A new Liberal housing announcement means taking Quebeckers hostage, people who are struggling to find housing with their own money, for electioneering purposes.
In the midst of a housing crisis, is this what it means for the Liberals to have their priorities straight?
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- Apr/8/24 2:44:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I take the question with a heavy dose of irony, considering that we have invested $31.5 million in that member's constituency through the housing accelerator fund.
Moreover, this is a fund that not only she, but every Conservative member of Parliament, vows to take apart should the Conservatives form government. Where they will cut funds for housing, we will make the investment. Where we cut taxes, they will put them back on.
We are doing what it takes to make it easier to build homes faster, and we are going to put Canadians to work in the process.
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- Apr/8/24 2:44:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, a heavy dose of reality is that, after eight years of the Liberal-NDP government and all its spending and photo ops, things are worse.
Just today, RBC confirmed that Canada's housing crisis is only going to get worse under Liberal policies. They said that only 26% of Canadian households can afford a single detached home today. A couple of decades ago, it was 49%. The CMHC forecasts that, in 2025-26, housing starts will be even lower than they were in 2020-21.
The Prime Minister is just not worth the cost or the corruption. Will the Prime Minister actually build the homes, not bureaucracy and photo ops, in his budget?
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- Apr/8/24 2:45:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are putting forward policies that are going to help solve the national housing crisis.
We know that higher interest rate environments have made it difficult to build homes. That is why we are cutting taxes on new home construction, which the Conservatives oppose. It is why we are putting more money on the table to build new apartments, which they oppose. It is why we are putting money towards incentivizing changes for cities, which they oppose. Just this past week, the Conservative deputy leader held a press conference to proudly declare that they were siding with the NIMBYs when it came to municipal zoning reforms.
We need to do everything we can to make it easier to build homes more quickly and more cost effectively. It is a shame the Conservatives oppose it at every stage.
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- Apr/8/24 2:46:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of deficits, people are no longer able to put a roof over their heads. There is still more red tape than common-sense solutions, like giving bonuses to cities that build more housing.
As we have said before, this Prime Minister is not worth the cost. The demand for housing is skyrocketing. A landlord in Saguenay received over 200 applications for his rental unit in just 24 hours. Apartments are increasingly scarce and increasingly expensive.
In the upcoming budget, will the Prime Minister finally build housing and stop adding red tape?
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- Apr/8/24 2:46:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next budget is coming and the member already knows that it will contain additional housing measures.
What he should also know is that, just a few months ago, we signed a $1.8-billion agreement with the Government of Quebec that will provide, all at once, the largest number of new housing units in the history of Quebec. This is an extraordinary event resulting from an extraordinary collaboration.
Unlike the Conservatives, who keep spewing insults, picking fights and calling people, particularly municipal and provincial representatives, incompetent, we are working for Quebeckers to get hundreds and even thousands of housing units built in the coming months and years.
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- Apr/8/24 2:47:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Shahzeb is a young dad in Toronto.
He feels stuck. He cannot afford to leave his parents' home. Like many Canadians, he is feeling hopeless. In Toronto alone, 85,000 people are waiting for social housing. It is because of 30 years of Liberals ignoring the problem while the gut-and-cut Conservatives lost over 800,000 affordable homes.
Are the Liberals going to keep throwing money at rich developers for luxury condos, or will they start to build the social and affordable housing Canadians desperately need?
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- Apr/8/24 2:48:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me begin by congratulating my friend and colleague on his recent appointment; I look forward to working with him to defend the most vulnerable in the months ahead.
With respect, over the last number of years, we have put investments on the table that are building affordable housing for low-income families, and we are accelerating that work. The upcoming federal budget is going to include $1.5 billion to help non-profits acquire social housing so that it can be kept affordable forever. We have made, in the fall economic statement, an additional billion-dollar investment to build more affordable housing stock, and we are working with provinces and territories by putting federal money on the table and using federal leadership to help solve the housing crisis, including for the most vulnerable. I am looking forward to continuing this work alongside my colleague.
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- Apr/8/24 2:51:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, Canadians cannot achieve the goal of owning a home and continue to struggle amidst this crisis.
According to a recent report in The Globe and Mail, Canada needs to complete 320,000 housing units annually from now until 2030 to meet the demand. Canadians have had enough and must see this crisis managed properly. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost or the corruption.
Will the Prime Minister stop basing the budget on bureaucracy and photo ops and actually build the homes?
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- Apr/8/24 2:53:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this Liberal government, finding housing in Canada is a nightmare. It was actually kind of funny and a bit ironic to see the ministers and the Prime Minister strutting around the country last week talking about how incompetent they have been when it comes to housing. The proof is that the CMHC confirmed last week that average home prices doubled between 2019 and 2022. That was all under the Liberals.
Is next week's budget going to build housing, not just create even more red tape?
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