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Member of Parliament

Scott Aitchison

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

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23
Mr. Scott Aitchison
  • Jun/13/23 10:25:07 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question. Her record on the housing file is well known. However, where I fundamentally disagree with her is on the fact that, when the federal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau got out of incentivizing the construction of purpose-built rentals, which I spoke about earlier, the private sector picked up the slack. Mom and Pop bought a second place, maybe because they had a little money to invest, so they did. If that is the financialization of housing, then yes, I guess it is, but without them doing that, there would be no rentals at all. Therefore, we need a federal government that is focused on what needs to be focused on so that we can get more rentals built, period.
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Context: House Hansard - 189 - May/2/23
Mr. Scott Aitchison
  • 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.
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Context: House Hansard - 185 - Apr/26/23
Mr. Scott Aitchison (Parry Sound—Muskoka, CPC)
  • Apr/26/23 2:20:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is holding Canadians hostage. Young people who dream of having their own home have been relegated to spare bedrooms and homes with roommates because of the sky-high cost of housing. In Canada’s biggest cities, like Toronto and Vancouver, an apartment can go for upwards of $1,300 a month. Even in smaller cities, like London, Halifax, Victoria and Winnipeg, a single room can cost upwards of $1,000 a month. The Liberals say they have the backs of young people, yet they are making the situation worse. There are many things the federal government could be doing, like tying federal infrastructure funding to cities' getting approvals done faster, requiring high-density residential around transit, getting rid of empty federal buildings in favour of housing, and incentivizing the private sector to build more rentals. If only the Liberal government understood that the housing situation in Canada is, in fact, a crisis, maybe then the young people of this country would no longer be forced to pay the high price for Liberal failures.
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