44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 18, 2024 10:00AM
- Apr/18/24 3:02:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are two things I would like to point out.
First of all, as soon as Bill C‑75 was introduced in the House two Parliaments ago, the member opposite voted against it, even though it included longer sentences for auto theft.
Now we have a budget. In the budget, we have already announced that we are going to increase the maximum sentences for auto theft. However, the member and his leader have already said that the Conservatives oppose our budget and our efforts to control auto theft.
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- Apr/18/24 3:05:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the ongoing national crisis must come to an end. No one knows this better than the families of those who have lost their loved ones to this crisis. That is why we are working with indigenous partners in leveraging budget 2024 with an investment of $1.3 million to co-develop a regional red dress alert system.
From housing to indigenous policing, budget 2024 continues to make progress on the systemic change needed to put this crisis to an end once and for all. I want to thank the member for that important question and for her advocacy. We will continue to do this important work with indigenous partners and colleagues across the floor.
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- Apr/18/24 3:09:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, small and medium-sized businesses are an integral part of Canada's economy. They employ about 65% of Canada's workers. Recognizing that small businesses deserve additional supports, it is important for us to make doing business more affordable for entrepreneurs.
Can the Minister of Small Business tell us about the measures in budget 2024 that will help entrepreneurs in Kitchener—Conestoga and across Canada?
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- Apr/18/24 3:10:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as a former small business entrepreneur myself, I know the importance of affordability for entrepreneurs. I am glad that, through budget 2024, our government is committed to delivering $2.5 billion to 600,000 small businesses across Canada through the Canada carbon rebate.
Reports say that 60% of small businesses are directly impacted by climate change, and while the official opposition continues to want to cut the Canada carbon rebate, on this side of the House, we are going to continue fighting climate change while putting money back into the pockets of Canadians and small businesses.
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- Apr/18/24 3:26:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it being Thursday, of course I rise to ask the government House leader if he could inform the House as to what business we will be deliberating on for the rest of this week and, with next week being a constituency workweek, what we can hope to expect after we come back from our ridings.
This being the ninth time the House will be debating a Liberal budget, I wonder if my hon. colleague truly believes that, after the first budget raised inflation and interest rates, the second budget raised inflation, interest rates and taxes, and the third, fourth, fifth and sixth all helped to create the housing crisis that is plaguing Canadians and to drive up the costs of everyday items, impoverishing the Canadian people, after eight years, eight budgets all trying the same failed approach, and after his own government admitted that it is causing hardship and unfairness for Canadians, the ninth time trying the exact same approach will yield different results.
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Mr. Speaker, the different results we hope for are for Conservatives to stop voting against the series of measures we put in place to solve the very problems the member professes to care about. In particular, it would be great if we could pass the doubling of the top-up of the rebate on the price on carbon, so that rural residents in this country from one coast to another could benefit from that additional affordability measure as we continue our fight against climate change, which is affecting them, it must be said, disproportionately. I assure my hon. friend we are very committed to passing what is an exceptionally good, aggressive and helpful budget for all Canadians.
We will continue debate on the budget this afternoon.
Tomorrow, we will conclude debate on the motion concerning the amendments proposed by the Senate to Bill C-29, An Act to provide for the establishment of a national council for reconciliation.
Upon our return from the constituency week, and I wish all members a good week of work in their constituencies, we will deal with the budget debate on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address budget 2024. I propose to deliver my remarks in two contexts: first, to address how this budget resonates with the residents whom I am privileged to represent in Parkdale—High Park in Toronto; second, to look more largely at some of the very important components that relate to the administration of justice in this country and are touched on in this budget document.
I am proud to have represented, for almost nine years now, the constituents in Parkdale—High Park. What those constituents have talked to me repeatedly about is the need to address housing. In budget 2024, we find some very key provisions that relate to housing. I cannot list them all, but some deal with the pressing issue of building more housing, increasing housing supply. That is fundamental in terms of what we are trying to do as a government, and it is empowered and advanced by this important budget document. What I am speaking of here is, for example, $15 billion in additional contributions to Canada's apartment construction loan program, which will help to build more than 30,000 additional new homes.
What I also take a lot of pride in is the fact that we are addressing the acute needs of renters. I say that in two respects. This budget document outlines, for example, how renters can be empowered to get to the point of home ownership by virtue of having a proper rental payment history. This can contribute to building up one's credit worthiness with credit ratings agencies; when the time comes to actually apply for a mortgage, one will have built up that credit worthiness by demonstrating that one has made regular rent payments over a period of years. This is truly empowering for the renters in my community and communities right around the country. I have already heard that feedback from the renters whom I represent.
Lastly, I would simply point out what we are doing with respect to the tenants' bill of rights. This is a really important document that talks about ensuring that tenants have rights they can vindicate, including in front of tribunals and, potentially, courts of law. We are coupling that with a $15-million investment that would empower and unlock advocates who assist those renters. That is fundamental. In that respect, it actually relates to the two hats that I wear in this chamber, in both my roles as a representative of individual renters and as Minister of Justice.
Another component that my constituents have been speaking to me about regularly since 2015 is our commitment to advancing meaningful reconciliation with indigenous peoples. Again, this document has a number of components that relate to indigenous peoples in budget 2024. There are two that I would highlight for the purpose of these remarks. First, there is the idea about what we are doing to settle litigation against indigenous peoples and ensure that we are proceeding on a better and more conciliatory path forward. We talk about a $23-billion settlement with respect to indigenous groups who are litigating discriminatory underfunding of children and child family services and the fact that this historic settlement was ratified by the federal court. That is critical.
Second, in this document we also talk about funding a project that is near and dear to my heart. Why do I say that? It is because, in 2017, I had the privilege of serving as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Heritage. At that time, I helped to co-develop, along with Métis, first nations and Inuit leaders, the legislation that has now become the Indigenous Languages Act. That is coupled with an indigenous languages commission. In this very budget document, we talk about $225 million to ensure the continued success of that commission and the important work it is doing to promote, enhance and revitalize indigenous languages in this country.
Those are fundamental investments. I think it is really important to highlight them in the context of this discussion.
I would also highlight that my riding, I am proud to say, is full of a lot of people who care about women. They care about feminism; they care about social and economic policies that empower women. I would highlight just two. First of all, we talk about pharmacare in this budget. The first volley of pharmaceutical products that will be covered includes contraceptive devices that would assist, as I understand it, as many as nine million Canadians through access to contraception. This would allow women, particularly young women and older women, to ensure that they have control over their reproductive function. That is fundamental to me as a representative, and it is fundamental to our government and what our government prioritizes in this country. I would also say that, with $10-a-day child care, there are affordable and robust means of ensuring that people's children are looked after in this country; that empowers women to do such things as participate in the workforce.
What I am speaking about here is that we are hitting levels of women's participation in the workforce that have never been seen before, with women's labour force participation of 85.4%. That is an incredible social policy that is translating into a terrific economic policy.
We can also talk about the $6.1-billion Canada disability benefit. I am proud to say that the constituents of Parkdale—High Park care meaningfully about inclusive policies, policies that alleviate poverty and are addressed to those who are vulnerable and those who are in need. People have been asking me about the disability benefit, including when we will see it and when it will come to the fore. We are seeing it right now with this document. The very document that we will be voting on in this chamber includes a $6.1-billion funding model to empower Canadians who are disabled and to ensure that we are addressing their needs.
This budget also represents a bit of a catch-up, meaning that we are catching up to the rest of the G7. Until this budget was delivered, we remained the only G7 country in the world not to have a national school food program. It goes without saying that not a single one of the 338 members privileged to serve in this House would think it is good for a child to arrive at school hungry, in any of their communities or in this country as a whole. I do not think this is a partisan statement whatsoever. We would acutely address child hunger. Through a national school food program, we would ensure that children do not arrive at school hungry, which would impede their productivity and certainly limit their education. Through a $1-billion investment, we would cure school poverty and school hunger.
We are also introducing legislation to reduce cellphone and banking fees, which is fundamental.
With respect to the hat I wear as Minister of Justice, which I have done for about eight months, I firmly believe that one of my pivotal roles is ensuring access to justice. I would say that this document really rings true to the commitment that I have personally and that our government and the Prime Minister have to this. Here, I am speaking about the notion of our commitment to legal aid. Legal aid has multiple components, but it is fundamental to ensuring that people can have their rights vindicated with the assistance of counsel. This helps address things such as court backlogs and court delays; it is also fundamental for the individual litigants before the courts. There is a criminal legal aid package in this budget that includes $440 million over five years.
There is also immigration and refugee legal aid. Unfortunately, since the provinces have wholesale resiled from their involvement in this portfolio, since 2019, we have been stepping in with annual funding. We are making that funding no longer simply annual; we are projecting it over a five-year term, which gives certainty and predictability to the people who rely on immigration and refugee legal aid, to the tune of $273 million. That is fundamental.
Members heard in question period about efforts we are making to address workplace sexual harassment. I will pivot again here to the fact that this dovetails with both my ministerial role and my role of devoted constituency representative as the MP for Parkdale—High Park. I hear a great deal from my constituents about speaking to women's needs in terms of addressing harassment and sexual harassment. With this budget, we would provide $30 million over three years to address workplace sexual harassment. That is also fundamental.
Likewise, what we are doing on hatred is fundamental. Three full pages of the budget document are dedicated to addressing hatred. Some points dovetail with legislation that I have tabled in this House, including Bill C-63, regarding what we would do to curb online hatred and its propensity to spread. However, there are also concrete investments here that talk about Canada's action plan on combatting hate and empowering such bodies as the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with the important work it is doing in terms of promoting better understanding and the knowledge base of hate crimes units. Also, fundamentally, there is money dedicated in this very budget to ensuring that both law enforcement agencies and Crown prosecutors are better trained and provided better information about how to identify hate and potentially prosecute it. With where we are as a country right now, this is a pressing need; I am very proud to see budget 2024 addressing it directly.
For the reasons I outlined earlier, in terms of how this addresses the particular needs of my constituents and for the very replete justice investments that are made to ensuring access to justice and tackling pernicious issues, such as sexual harassment and hatred, I believe this is a budget that all 338 of us should get behind and support.
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- Apr/18/24 3:43:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to take the member back to the Liberal platform of 2021, called “Forward. For Everyone.” In that platform, the Liberals' promise was not small; it was a major promise of $4.5 billion for the Canada mental health transfer, which would be implemented over five years. That was almost three years ago. Why has it not been dealt with in this latest budget? Is this another broken Liberal promise?
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Mr. Speaker, this budget is ironically called “Fairness for Every Generation.”
After nine years of the Prime Minister trying to make things fair, he sure has not done a very good job. Things are not fair.
Is it fair to every generation that every year life is less affordable? Is it fair to every generation that rents are sky-high? Is it fair to every generation that one in four kids cannot afford to eat? Is it fair to every generation that it takes almost 20 years just to save up for a down payment?
The Prime Minister is not worth the cost for any generation. This is the ninth straight year of deficit spending. In 2015, the federal debt was $616 billion, accumulated from 1867, when Canada began. Today, it is $1.25 trillion, double. The Prime Minister has borrowed more money than all other prime ministers combined.
The result is that, after 20 years of low inflation and interest rates, the Prime Minister's irresponsible inflationary spending has upended Canada's stable economy.
This year, Canada will spend $54.1 billion on interest to wealthy bankers and bondholders, instead of to doctors and nurses, to service the Prime Minister's debt. That is the same amount collected in GST. We should change the name of that tax from the GST to the DST, the debt servicing tax. It is also more money than the government spends on health care or on the Canada child benefit.
This is what happens when a Prime Minister does not want to think about monetary policy. The result is that mortgage payments have doubled, down payments have doubled, rents have doubled, the cost of gas, groceries and home heating have skyrocketed, and people cannot afford to eat, heat or house themselves.
Instead of reining in spending to bring inflation under control, the Prime Minister acts like a pyromaniac, throwing another $40 billion on the inflationary fire. This is despite warnings from economists, including Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem, who cautioned that government spending is at the upper bound. This will make it much harder for the bank to lower interest rates.
This is not a partisan point. Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page expressed this yesterday, telling Global News, “We gotta get those interest rates down. So on a net basis, this is just not good for inflation.” Former Liberal finance minister John Manley also warned this government months ago that it was pressing on the inflationary gas pedal with its spending. Even former Liberal-appointed governor of the Bank of Canada David Dodge said he believes that this will be the “worst budget” since 1982.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. After nine deficits and doubling the national debt, Canada is less fair and Canadians are worse off.
Now the finance minister says that what Canadians really want is a stronger government to make things fairer. By making government bigger, the Liberals have made citizens weaker. Conservatives believe that smaller government makes for bigger citizens.
This is not a government that gives people everything they want. It is a government that takes everything they have. Members do not have to take it from me. Just yesterday, in the Financial Post, it was written, “we’ve become a growth laggard and our living standards have largely stagnated for the better part of a decade.”
Part of our declining standard of living has to do with the fact that Canada has the worst productivity in the G7. Our GDP growth has been driven primarily by population and labour force growth, not productivity improvements. That may increase the total amount of goods and services, but it does not translate into increased living standards.
This is a real crisis. From 2000 to 2023, the growth rate of Canada's real per person GDP was 0.7%. That is meaningfully worse than the G7 average of 1% and the United States', whose GDP per person growth rate was 1.2%, almost double. Our country is facing a productivity crisis that threatens to erode this country’s standard of living and erase many Canadians' hopes for a more prosperous future.
Just a few weeks ago the Bank of Canada's deputy governor Carolyn Rogers said that we have a productivity emergency, and “in case of emergency, break glass.” Even former Liberal finance minister Bill Morneau says the budget is a threat to investment and economic growth.
It is time to take action by, for instance, reducing regulatory barriers to investment, celebrating entrepreneurship, bolstering the profit incentive for private investment and loosening the federal government's tight grip on the economy. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister does the exact opposite.
There has been one change, though. The borrow-and-spend Liberals are now the tax-and-spend Liberals. On top of gouging Canadians with their April 1 tax hikes, they have decided that they know better how to spend businesses' money than the hard-working Canadians who actually run those businesses.
This is not a partisan point. Dan Kelly, president of the CFIB, said, “What worries me the most about [these tax] changes is the potential to demotivate Canadians from getting into business in the first place or working hard to grow a small business to a medium-sized business”. He is not the only one.
Harley Finkelstein, president of Canada’s greatest tech company, Shopify, said:
We need to be doing everything we can to turn Canada into the best place for entrepreneurs to build.
What's proposed in the federal budget will do the complete opposite. Innovators and entrepreneurs will suffer and their success will be penalized—this is...a tax on innovation and risk taking.
Our policy failures are America's gains. At a time when our country is facing critically low productivity and business investment our political leaders are failing our country's entrepreneurs.
For nine years, the Prime Minister has told Canadians that the rich would pay for the cost of his spending, but the truth is that it has been everyday Canadians who have been the ones paying. The Prime Minister has already raised his punishing carbon tax by 23% on April 1, and with $40 billion in new inflationary spending, Canadians will continue to pay the inflation tax that hurts the poorest among us the most. Whatever the Prime Minister says, it will not be him and his billionaire friends who pay for new spending. It will be single moms, workers and small business owners.
We cannot tax our way to prosperity, and no government program can increase productivity better than the power of the free market, spurred on by Canadian entrepreneurs. We need to celebrate entrepreneurship in this country, not punish it.
Conservatives had three simple demands for the budget: axe the tax on farmers and food by immediately passing Bill C-234 in its original form; build the homes, not bureaucracy, by requiring cities to permit 15% more homebuilding each year as a condition for receiving federal infrastructure money; and cap spending with a dollar-for-dollar rule to bring down interest rates and inflation. The government must find a dollar in savings for every dollar of spending.
The Prime Minister did none of those things, and for those reasons, Conservatives will not be supporting the budget.
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- Apr/18/24 3:57:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are many things I can go to, in terms of what the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister said in introducing the budget. One of the things that really stood out for me, and it contradicts many of the things the leader of the official opposition and the member who just spoke have said, was to take a look at the amount of foreign investment on a per capita basis. When we take a look at the G7 countries in the world, we will find that, in the first three-quarters of 2023, we were number one in terms of that foreign investment. That speaks volumes.
Next to that, I would remind the member of something I said earlier. It took Stephen Harper just over nine years to create just under a million jobs. We have been able to create over two million jobs in less time. I am wondering if the member opposite can explain to me why he believes we should take economic advice when our performance has far outweighed and benefited Canadians, more so than the Stephen Harper era.
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- Apr/18/24 3:59:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course, the member is saying what all Liberals say, that Canadians have never had it so good. They think that everything is great.
It was not my advice. I do not expect him to take my advice. Bill Morneau does not like the budget. Paul Manley does not like the budget. Many of the other economists I mentioned in my speech do not like the budget. There has been a great deal of criticism over changes in tax policy that will actually penalize productivity growth in this country. He does not have to take it from me. He just has to open up a newspaper and read it for himself.
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- Apr/18/24 3:59:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I may not agree with all of the hon. member's intervention, but I do appreciate all of us in this place having the opportunity to voice our different thoughts and opinions.
One of the concerns that I have with this budget is what seems to me to be a significant underfunding of the housing and infrastructure costs that are required for first nations and Inuit communities across Canada. I know that the Conservatives had a long history of underfunding those communities. I am just wondering if this member has any concern with the continued underfunding that we are seeing under the Liberals.
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- Apr/18/24 4:01:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is always thoughtful, bringing information forward that is very useful, but when the member across the way says that so many people have new jobs, the government hiring hundreds of thousands of people is not going to help the economy. That does not increase the GDP.
You also talked about who is going to be paying for this budget's huge deficit. Could you tell us again what your belief is as to who is going to be paying for this?
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- Apr/18/24 4:13:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know if the member listened to what the minister was talking about, but she made reference to an accelerated capital cost allowance. Through that, we would be seeing many of the things the member just talked about, yet he is going to be voting against it, and that is the thing. The Conservative Party has already been told. We knew that the Conservatives would be voting against this years ago. They have made that declaration, so there is no surprise there, but what is a bit of a surprise is how the Conservative Party continues to try to give a false impression.
Using what the member just indicated, and maybe he wrote it himself, I do not know, he is trying to give the impression that the government is not taking action on something that is so every important to the economy. However, the accelerated capital cost allowance does exactly what the member has been advocating for.
I am wondering if the member had the choice to vote in favour of that aspect of the budget if he would actually vote in favour of that aspect.
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- Apr/18/24 4:14:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. friend from Northumberland—Peterborough South is chair of the rail caucus, an initiative that self-started, and which I am very pleased and proud to participate in. It is all-party and non-partisan.
I look at this budget, and I have to say I was very disappointed not to see a real focus on ground transportation that would include integrating rail and bus service to reach more Canadians. I was pleased to see, or at least it looks like, maybe, in a future budget, the high-frequency rail project may be restructured so that it does not kill Via Rail in the Windsor to Quebec corridor. I am very interested to know my friend's thoughts on the Via Rail sections of the budget.
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- Apr/18/24 4:15:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to work on rail alongside my respected colleague. I am an outspoken supporter of rail.
I, too, read that section of the budget. Ultimately, we will have to see what is in the implementation section. We do need strong rail infrastructure in this country. We can contrast that with the United States of America, which has the most rail per mile in the entire world, and in Canada, we are falling behind. Given our legacy of being one of the largest rail systems in the world 100 years ago, it is sad to see what we have come to.
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Mr. Speaker, how can the member justify the fact that he voted in the House in favour of Bill C‑319, which gives seniors over the age of 65 an increase in their old age security pension, yet there is nothing to that effect in the budget? The budget talks about housing, and seniors also have difficulty finding affordable housing.
How can he justify the fact that his government, after voting in favour of the bill in the House, did not bother to eliminate this discrimination, this double standard for seniors, even though that was part of the budget expectations we presented to the minister? What was he waiting for?
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- Apr/18/24 4:31:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I did not get a chance to cover part of my speech, which was focused on the public land the federal government is making available, but I will highlight that in a very short comment. In fact, budget 2024 proposes $5 million over three years, starting in 2024, to support and to overhaul Canada Lands Company to expand its activities to build more homes on public lands.
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- Apr/18/24 4:31:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, it is a great pleasure for me to speak to this budget: “Fairness for Every Generation”. I have 10 minutes and I can probably speak for hours in terms of things that are in this budget document that support members of my community here in Ottawa Centre.
We announced things like a national food program. That is going to help thousands of children in my riding. It is significant. The expansion of the $10-a-day child care is another. I continue to hear from parents about how the reduction in fees is helping them. Now we are reinvesting more money to create more spaces. That is going to help more families and more children. We have the Canada dental care plan that is going to help so many seniors in my community of Ottawa Centre. We have also announced pharmacare that will allow women to be able to access contraception for free and provide insulin for those with diabetes.
I can go on and give individual speeches on all the benefits to my community on each issue. However, I am going to use my remaining time to talk about the housing plan that has been outlined in this budget. It is extremely important to my community. In fact, I am going to home in further on the initiatives to develop public land to build more housing, for people to both own and rent.
My community of Ottawa Centre is primarily made up of the downtown community just outside this beautiful building, the House of Commons. Like many downtown areas across the country, ours has gone through a really challenging time as a result of the pandemic. In fact, when it comes to Ottawa's downtown, it was really built upon a model of Monday to Friday, nine-to-five businesses, because of the federal government.
As we know, when the pandemic hit, all of us had to work from home to keep all of us safe, to manage the spread of COVID-19 and to protect not only ourselves but our respective families. That has caused a lot of challenges for downtown Ottawa, particularly for our small businesses, which relied on the workers who came to the downtown core.
As we are coming out of the pandemic, we know that hybrid work is here to stay. We saw that trend coming before the pandemic. Of course, during the pandemic, working from home became a norm because we all had to work and to stay safe. Now a lot of workers are choosing to have a hybrid format to how they work.
In my community, as a result, we are having many conversations as to the kinds of things we need to do to revitalize our downtown. As a member of Parliament, I initiated the downtown Ottawa revitalization task force, which started in 2022. We brought in partners from indigenous communities, small businesses, large landlords, for-profit housing developers, not-for-profit housing developers and tourism stakeholders.
This was all done from the perspective of coming together to share not only the challenges but most importantly the solutions that we can champion that would allow for people to work, to live and to visit our downtown. I strongly feel that Ottawa is a unique place, given it is a G7 nation's capital. If our downtown Ottawa thrives, not only is the entire city of Ottawa going to do well, but it is also reflective of our country on the international stage.
There are too many members of the committee to name, but I want to thank every single one of them for their incredible work. They were all volunteers who had full-time day jobs, but for the love of their community, they spent time consulting with others online and in person. After about a year and a half of work, toward the end of last year in 2023, we issued a report outlining a vision to revitalize downtown Ottawa. It is worth looking at it. It is on my website at yasirnaqvimp.ca, if anybody is interested in it.
What it does is it presents many ideas as to how we can help revitalize downtown Ottawa. One of the key areas in that is using public lands. We have a lot of federal buildings in the downtown core. Some have already been deemed surplus buildings, which means that the federal government has decided that they do not have a need for them, so they will be put on the market to be sold.
Some of them are in a place where they can be converted from a commercial building to residential. We have already seen those projects happening in downtown Ottawa. In fact, I must say, Calgary is a shining example of that. I had the chance to visit Calgary about a year or so ago to see the kinds of conversion projects that are taking place. We are trying to copy that model right here in Ottawa as well.
As the local member of Parliament, I have been advocating with the federal government on a few things, such as how we make these public lands more available and accessible, and how we can make sure that the properties that have been deemed surplus can be disposed of in a relatively shorter period of time, so that we can find ways to be creative, so that, if it is possible, we can convert those buildings from commercial to residential, for people to live in.
I am really happy to see that the advocacy my community and I have been doing is reflected in this budget. This budget devotes a significant amount of time to talking about how we can make better use of public lands and buildings, whether to sell them or to lease them, so that we can use them at a far more faster pace, which is an incredible opportunity. The budget actually speaks of conversion of unused office spaces as well, and it has given the responsibility both to PSPC and Canada Lands Company, which is a federal Crown corporation, to find ways to expedite that process.
There are various programs that have been announced, such as the apartment construction loan program in this budget, which will allow for these projects to take place at a faster pace. I am also thrilled to see the creation of an acquisition fund that was also a very specific recommendation in the downtown Ottawa revitalization task force report, which will allow not-for-profits like Ottawa Community Housing or CCOC in my city to be able to buy smaller buildings that allow for affordable rents and to protect those affordable rents and make sure that the people living in them continue to live in their homes.
All of these measures added on, and there are many more, create a tremendous opportunity for communities like mine, in a practical way, to really take the next step, postpandemic, as we rebuild our community.
It is an opportunity to be able to use excess, surplus federal buildings like the ones we have in Ottawa Centre to create more homes and bring more businesses into the community. We also have federal lands in my community such as Tunney's Pasture and LeBreton Flats. It creates opportunities to use them as well to build more affordable housing, not just to rent but to own as well.
As I hope members can hear in my voice, I am really excited about what is in this budget, because it really is addressing a real need that has been identified by my community here in Ottawa Centre as something that is going to help us build a better community.
For that reason, I am supporting this budget and I urge all members of the House to do the same.
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- Apr/18/24 4:42:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would never cast negative aspersions on the member's community, and I thank him for spending time in my community and supporting local businesses in my community. He mentioned the last four years that he has been here. Almost three of those years were during the pandemic and that, indeed, had a huge impact on our community as it did across the country. It created a lot of hardship for people. We have seen increased homelessness.
That is why I, as a local member of Parliament, am working so hard along with many community partners, who are excited about the measures in this budget because they are going to address very specific needs. I had hoped that not only would he support this budget, but that he and the members of his party would have supported all of the anti-poverty measures that we have brought in over the last several years that have helped many members in our communities.
The measures outlined in this budget are going to help make my community and, I am sure, his community, a better place to live for many people.
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