44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 15, 2024 11:00AM
- Apr/15/24 2:10:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is as if the Prime Minister has forgotten that he has been in power for almost nine years and that he and his policies, all of them, are the direct cause of the housing and mortgage crisis Canadians are facing.
The way he has been parading around the country, blaming everyone else but him for the housing hell reminds me of that old Shaggy song, It Wasn't Me. Well, it was him who was caught red-handed promising to lower the price of housing, rents and mortgages in Canada that have doubled in nine years, pushing middle-class Canadians to live in tent cities in nearly every city.
Last week, CMHC confirmed that it has been him causing less affordable housing and higher rents because fewer homes are being built than we did in the 1970s. Worst of all, it is him who has dealt a devastating blow to young Canadians hoping to enter the housing market, young people who feel like they have been lied to and let down by the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister has a chance to axe the tax in tomorrow's budget to make life more affordable for Canadians. The question is: Will he, or will he continue to blame others for the problems he has caused and say, “It wasn't me”, because Canadians know it is the Prime Minister?
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- Apr/15/24 2:19:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, is that common sense? That is more like nonsense. He wants to make cuts to programs that support the middle class. He wants to make cuts to the program that helps build housing. He wants to make cuts to the program seeking to protect our environment. That is not common sense. It is incompetence.
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- Apr/15/24 2:20:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, six is the number Canadians at home need to remember. The man we just heard, the Conservative leader, the one who wants to advise Canada on what plans to make, managed to build six units of affordable housing when he was the minister responsible for housing. I have said it before and I will say it again: We will not take any lessons from the Conservatives. On this side, we have a plan to build homes, create jobs and create prosperity. Canadians know that slogans do not build homes, they do not build prosperity and they will not help Canadians.
Every day is a good day to fight for Canadians. That is what we are going to do.
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- Apr/15/24 2:23:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition wants to talk about homes that do not exist, perhaps we should look at the 800,000 affordable housing units that were lost while he was housing minister. Perhaps we should examine the fact that, while he was minister, zero new apartments were supported by the federal government and a total of only six affordable housing units were built nationwide.
Now, he likes to talk a big game, but let us look at the plan he is putting on the table. He wants to raise taxes on home construction and cut funding for the cities that are making it easier to build homes.
We have advanced programs that are going not just to build more homes but to allow people to save up more money for their down payment and reduce their monthly mortgage costs when they go to enter the housing market for the first time.
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- Apr/15/24 2:24:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member wants to talk about homes that do not exist. Let us talk about the 800,000 affordable housing units that were lost when he was last in government. Let us talk about the fact that when he was actually housing minister, he got zero apartments built with the support of the federal government. Let us look at the fact that across the entire country, he was able to get a total of only six affordable housing units built.
He talks a big game, but he does literally nothing for people who need to get into the housing market. We have new measures that help people who are renting now and measures that will make it easier for people to save up for a down payment and reduce their monthly mortgage costs if they want to own a home in this country.
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- Apr/15/24 2:25:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, more proof the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the cost is that he picked the most incompetent immigration minister in Canadian history and put him in charge of housing. This is the guy who lost track of a million people, who is blamed by his fellow cabinet colleagues for causing the housing crisis and who presides over the most expensive housing market in Canadian history.
When I was minister, the average rent was $950, and we built hundreds of thousands of units at that affordable price, so why will he not learn from our smashing success in 2015 in keeping costs low, by axing the tax and building the homes?
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- Apr/15/24 2:26:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, at the time, they expressed opposition to our plan to welcome 40,000 Afghan refugees who fought alongside the Canadian Armed Forces. They seem still to have problems with the fact that we opened our door to vulnerable Ukrainians.
However, let us actually focus on the housing issue right now. The member talks a big game about housing, but he plans to raise tax—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Apr/15/24 2:28:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, everyone has their own priorities.
We are talking about investing in housing, but the Bloc members are saying no, they need a referendum. We are talking about investing in our young people and our seniors. The Bloc says they need a referendum. We are talking about ensuring that kids no longer go to school hungry. The Bloc says no, and that the solution to everything is a referendum.
While they are preparing for a referendum, we are preparing for the future.
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- Apr/15/24 2:29:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is nonsense.
When the federal government meddles in Quebec's jurisdictions, Quebeckers always get shortchanged. Housing is a perfect example. We represent 22% of the population, yet we got 14% of the funds and only 6% of affordable housing.
Not only do we never receive our fair share, but the last budget is going to add insult to injury. The feds are going to impose new conditions on the additional $6 billion of our money that they are promising for housing.
Why not simply hand over Quebeckers' fair share of the housing money, no conditions attached? Can he answer that question?
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- Apr/15/24 2:30:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are working with Quebec to ensure that it receives its fair share of the housing funds.
For example, we have reached an agreement with Quebec on the housing accelerator program. We are providing $900 million in federal funds and Quebec is investing $900 million. That adds up to $1.8 billion and 8,000 affordable housing units.
We are moving forward with programs to ensure that Quebec receives support, like everywhere else in the country.
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- Apr/15/24 2:35:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that party and that member not only have no plan for housing, but the meagre plan they have actually wants to make it more expensive to build houses in this country. The Conservatives are against every single measure that we have done to make home ownership affordable for Canadians again.
That Alberta MP voted against the Air Products $1.6-billion hydrogen plant in our province and voted against the first carbon capture, use and storage net-zero cement plant in our province. Conservatives are voting against Alberta jobs. They are voting against Canadians. We are here for Albertans and Canadians each and every day.
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- Apr/15/24 2:39:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, one, two, three, four, five, six affordable housing units. That is what the Conservative leader built when he was housing minister. Compare that to the 8,000 housing units that we are building with the partnership and leadership of the Government of Quebec and the municipalities.
In my colleague's riding of Mégantic—L'Érable, just one project in Thetford Mines will result in the construction of 24 affordable housing units. That is four times more units than his Conservative leader, his insulting leader, built during his entire term as housing minister.
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- Apr/15/24 2:40:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is not 24 units, it is 48 units. Even worse, CMHC is dragging its feet on approving this project.
I am so surprised to hear this minister brag about results. He is bragging about tens of thousands of affordable housing units that he wants to build to fix a crisis created by this Liberal government. That is the truth.
Will they come to their senses tomorrow and build homes, not bureaucracy, so that Canadians can have a roof over their heads? Will they fix the crisis they themselves created?
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- Apr/15/24 2:41:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to see that my colleague knows that we are indeed doing much more than his Conservative leader, his insulting leader, did during his term as housing minister.
I would like to highlight another project in his riding, in addition to the one he mentioned: the Envole-toi project. It will provide 13 affordable housing units for people in need, people who would otherwise be homeless. Thirteen is twice as many as six. It is twice as many total units as his housing minister, the Conservative leader, the insulting leader, built across the country during his entire term.
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- Apr/15/24 3:05:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, one, two, three, four, five, six. That is the number of affordable housing units built by the insulting Conservative leader when he was the minister responsible for housing.
There are several projects in my colleague's riding of Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup alone, but a couple that spring to mind are Habitations au Fil du Fleuve and Villa Rose des vents. Forty-one affordable housing units have been built in recent weeks, thanks to the leadership of the municipalities, which the Conservative leader calls incompetent, by the way. They have a leader who has built six units; the municipality in my colleague's riding has built 41. Who is more incompetent?
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- Apr/15/24 3:08:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, taking care of Canadians is exactly what we need to do, on this side of the House, certainly, through proper management of procurement exercises with the types of things and measures that we have announced in the last few weeks and months but also looking after the needs of Canadians with important investments in housing that we have made. We may be making even more with announcements tomorrow: 8,000 affordable homes, just in the province of Quebec, and hundreds of thousands across Canada.
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