SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Scott Aitchison

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • Parry Sound—Muskoka
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $125,505.29

  • Government Page
  • May/2/23 10:52:46 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am a big fan of my colleague who asked the question, and I admire her passion for housing. REITs were a tool used by the previous government with tax treatment to create investment in an aging housing stock. Part of the problem we have in this country is that we stopped building purpose-built rental in the 1970s because the Trudeau government of the time decided it was unfair and was worried about helping private landlords. The fact of the matter is that, once we stopped that, there was little investment in those purpose-built rentals. We are desperate for more purpose-built rentals, and we are also desperate for the purpose-built rentals to be revitalized. They are tired, and they are old. They need more investments, and REITs have actually done that. Trying to demonize the private sector is not going to help us in this situation. We need trillions of dollars of investment in housing, and the government cannot get it done, no matter how much it thinks it can.
176 words
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