- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $135,225.85
- Government Page
- Jun/21/23 2:21:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of Liberal scandals and ethics issues, there is a laundry list of wasteful spending growing by the day: $27 million in bonuses for federal housing bureaucrats as housing costs double and the building of new homes is dropping; $116 million in consulting fees to the Prime Minister's buddies at McKinsey; $210 million to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which we will never see again after the Liberals have admitted the bank is being controlled by Beijing; and $54 million for the arrive scam app. How can we forget the stunning $4.6 billion in COVID program abuse that the Liberals could not be bothered to recover?
After eight years, the wasteful spending has added to endless Liberal deficits and painful inflation, and now to skyrocketing interest and mortgage rates for Canadians who are struggling to get by.
Conservatives will bring down inflation, get spending under control and scrap the Liberal tax hikes punishing Canadians. After all, it is just common sense. Let us bring it home.
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Madam Speaker, we know the expression “read the fine print”, and I say that tonight to start my comments off on this particular piece of legislation because it is something that I find very applicable in a lot of the Liberals' initiatives and attempts over the past few months or so.
I want to give an example. Going all the way back to April, something the Liberal-NDP group has been doing the last several months to try to paint a brighter picture than what they truly have in this country, there was a headline from the industry minister that read, “Government of Canada announces affordable high-speed Internet to help connect low-income families and seniors.”
For $20 a month people could sign up, no problem. The details and the fine print were the important part. After clicking through the link two or three times to get to the details that matter, we found that only a fraction of the demographic who needs support, help or affordability even qualified for the program. It was only for those who receive the maximum GIS or the maximum child tax benefit. There were hundreds of thousands who read a headline thinking that the Liberal government was solving problem x, but the reality is that the impact is far less substantial than it wanted people to believe.
I give that example tonight in the chamber to fast forward to the bill we are dealing with. There is a measure specifically in it, and we have heard in question period, in questions and comments or in the Liberals' speeches tonight that it is going to help alleviate the housing crunch and the rental crunch that Canadians are facing. The fine print is important and the context is key, too.
The average rent per month in this country is $2,000. We are in the midst of a rental crisis, on the pricing and supply, and we are seeing little in the forecasts showing that anything the Liberal government is doing would change that in the short, medium or long term. It is simply an attempt for the Liberals to say, “We are helping alleviate rental housing prices.” They cite it as an attempt of arguing what they are trying to do.
Let us do the math. The average rent is $2,000. Let us not get started about Toronto or Vancouver or larger urban centres. The one-time top-up payment of $500 is what the Liberals are offering. I had a resident in Cornwall say two things to me when they learned of the amount. First, that literally, on average, equals one week of rent. What are they going to do for the other 51 weeks of the year to help with this crisis? Second, they were further upset and disappointed when they read the fine print and realized that six in 10 renters in this country are not even going to qualify for it. Read the fine print with the Liberal government is a key theme that we could echo here in the House over and over again.
We talk about the rental housing crisis in every part of this country. We should have a bill specifically dealing with getting more supply built, a federal jurisdiction that could make a meaningful difference. For example, I want to give credit to my colleague from Parry Sound—Muskoka for fighting in committee to look at exactly this. Back in my municipal days, we had to work to end exclusionary zoning policies. We could show national leadership on this and get that done.
I always laugh when I am reminded of my time in municipal politics about the three bad acronyms that we have in this country that need to stop if we are going to get serious about real, meaningful affordable housing being built in a decent time frame, if at all. We know the acronym NIMBY, not in my backyard, but there are two others that Canadians need to know and that need to end. They are CAVE, citizens against virtually everything, and BANANA, build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone.
We have gatekeepers in Ottawa who are refusing to show leadership to end exclusionary zoning, to end the crisis of building supply, and instead the Liberals and the NDP are going back to their communities saying, “We are not addressing any of that and we do not want to talk about it. Here is a payment that will help for one week of rent, on average, but for the other 51 weeks of the year, we are not sure what will happen.”
We can and we must do better on this. Look at the new dental plan. Actually, it is not a dental plan in the one sense. It is a typical failed bureaucratic Ottawa-knows-best program created in massive haste. I kind of laugh at this. The reason this program was created and this bill is in effect is that the Liberals promised this to the NDP in the deal they signed. I have to be careful the way I word it because I will trigger some people with the words I use to describe the relationship between the Liberals and the NDP, so I will be cautious on that.
I laugh because the New Democrats were stunned when news came out this summer that the Liberals were going to break their promise and could not create this program like they said. Here we are with this piece of legislation, Ottawa-knows-best legislation, that literally creates a duplicate layer of bureaucracy in Ottawa to manage programs, add bureaucracy and everything else when provincial governments already have these programs in nearly every part of the country.
In my home province of Ontario, there is the healthy smiles program for children and in recent years, under a Conservative government, there was the creation of the Ontario seniors dental care program. What we have with this bill to try to satisfy the partnership between the Liberals and NDP is millions and millions of dollars in bureaucracy in an Ottawa structure to administer a whole other program on top of the provincial ones that already exist. I do not mean to be harsh, but my confidence is very low in the government's ability to create a program.
Has anybody tried to get a passport lately? People have not been able to get one. It is taking three to four months to offer a basic service six months after the government said it was going to fix the mess. I can confirm through my constituency office that it is just as bad and chaotic as it was six months ago. Canadians have little faith when they hear Liberals say they have the solution of creating a brand new federal bureaucracy to administer a brand new program on top of the provincial ones that already exist. It is an absolute waste of administration and spending by Ottawa.
What is not addressed in the bills that the Liberals present is what provinces are asking for. Provinces did not ask for Ottawa to create this program and bureaucracy. There are not the promised funds they had on mental health. There are not the promised increases that they asked for and are begging for when it comes to our health care system and Canada health transfers. Long-term care is feeling left behind as well. There is little in the record of the Liberal government to make anybody have confidence in a new program being created.
I will use the last portion of my time in the chamber tonight to reiterate what the Conservative cost-of-living relief plan is. There is an absolute clear contrast with the Liberals and the NDP, who have caused this, through debt, deficit and increased spending. Eight years of that track record and they want to double down on that same approach again.
We have seen great momentum for the Conservative Party and the new leader because we have been talking with a very clear message these past few weeks. There is 40-year high inflation, a problem driven by Liberal and NDP overspending, debt and deficits. I will point out that in this legislation, every single dollar of new spending is not paid for. It is added debt and deficit in new money printing. However, Conservatives have a plan and a contrast that goes the other way.
The carbon tax is scheduled to increase again. It is scheduled to triple. It is scheduled to take more money out of people's pockets on April 1 next year. Our Conservative plan talks about exempting taxes on home heating this winter as people are facing 100% increases in their energy bills. We are asking for the government to show some compassion and not increase taxes on an already burdened Canadian economy and middle class in this country.
The contrast is clear on what we could do for cost-of-living relief in this country. We could allow people to keep more of their hard-earned money to pay for things like groceries, the cost of living, rentals and so forth, or we could double down on the failed approach that has given us 40-year high inflation. We have no confidence in the government's ability to create and manage effectively any new Ottawa program. We could help small businesses. We could help families. We could help control inflation and finally get this economy and cost of living crisis under control.
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Mr. Speaker, I am so grateful for that very insightful speech from the NDP member, and here is why. NDP members are more excited to talk about our new Conservative leader than they are about anything else, including their relationship with the Liberal government. I think I know why. We are back from a summer around the riding, and I think folks in Elmwood—Transcona, people in Timmins and people on Vancouver Island sent NDP members a little message this summer to say they do not like the relationship they have with the Liberal government. Their policies are driving inflation, and what we are continuing to see is the same thing. If the member wants to talk about the new Conservative leader, I am happy to do so as well.
The question for the member, then, to put it on the record, is about our clear message this week. Payroll taxes are going to be going up, taking more off people's paycheques January 1. The carbon tax is going up April 1, and it is scheduled to triple. If the member wants to control inflation and wants to help people with their financial budgets, does he agree with us and with no new tax increases?
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- Apr/26/22 7:31:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the very reason I am standing in the House talking about affordable housing is that I care. We care about it across the country.
I will never challenge the intent of the government and say that it does not care about housing affordability, homelessness or helping first-time homebuyers. This is about the approach it is taking to try to get there. The Liberals have had seven years. They claim they have done a, b, c, d and e, and in that time, housing prices have doubled. More people are walking away. We have more homelessness present in our communities, and we have more people requesting social housing because they cannot afford rent and cannot afford to buy a home. There is a lack of supply, and the challenges go on.
My argument continues to be about the direction the government has taken. I will give the Liberals the benefit of doubt that they mean well, but this is about actions and results. I will ask my constituents in Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry and all Canadians to reflect on the past five to seven years under the Liberal government. Is housing more affordable for them? Are they further ahead? The answer is clearly no.
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- Apr/26/22 7:23:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the line I use very often is that a week is an eternity in politics, and for the past five years it has become increasingly difficult and more stressful for anybody buying a home or looking to rent anywhere.
In Cornwall and my riding of SDG, the average price of a home is now $430,000. In the province of Ontario, last month the statistics showed the price was over $1 million on average to purchase a home. It was $800,000 across the country. Those are the average prices. I hear stories repeatedly of how rents are skyrocketing, the supply is low and young people living in their parents' basements are giving up on the idea of ever being able to save up enough money to buy their own home. These stories are heartbreaking, and what has happened over the course of the past few years is extremely frustrating.
I have to admit I do not think the Minister of Housing likes me too much. He references me in response in question period quite often because the last time we had this debate on housing a few months ago, I spoke about the Liberals' failed approach when it comes to housing. It is clearly broken when the housing minister sees prices that have doubled in the past five years and claims that the government's plan is working and is a benefit to Canadians.
I criticized the shared equity program, but not just for myself. I shared examples from stakeholders and proof from Canadians that they do not support that program. The minister then twisted my words. He could not even get my riding name right, but suggested that I was somehow against homelessness funding or doing anything in that regard. I will be blunt. That is pathetic and desperate.
The line I used was “desperate people do desperate things.” The minister is getting increasingly frustrated because Canadians are seeing the frustration they are facing in every single part of this country. It was also revealed in some documents recently that the minister authorized bonuses for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Organization, which has the simple and pure mandate of making housing affordable for Canadians. With all the stats that I just showed and the frustration in the air in every part of this country, the minister deemed in his judgment that it was appropriate to give $40 million in bonuses to an organization and team that is responsible for affordable housing. He did not like that very much, and continues to cite it.
I can say that in the city of Cornwall, the challenge of both hidden homelessness, which is what we call it, and also visible homelessness has shaken our community in the past couple of years. We actually have homeless encampments now near the port of entry under the international bridge going to Cornwall Island and into the United States.
The approach from the government needs to change. The shared equity program is broken. Members do not need to take my word for it. Mortgage Professionals Canada, which represents mortgage brokers, lenders and insurance and service providers, said last month that the federal government has failed to address Canada's housing affordability problem. When it came to the first-time homebuyers' incentive program, it said that it is “simply failing”. That is the part that needs to end. The spokesperson said that “almost all clients dislike the idea of becoming a co-homeowner with the government, if they can avoid it.”
That says it all. The fact that we are at a point now where the government believes it needs to put out money to help people contribute toward the equity in their homes speaks volumes about how our system and housing system are broken.
My question to the parliamentary secretary is this. Will the government finally change course?
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- Apr/5/22 2:44:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister has to keep reusing the same recycled talking points and twisting people's words because he is embarrassed, and rightfully so, of his record as minister.
He claims to have a plan that would help make housing more affordable, but under his watch, we have seen housing prices double and rent become more unaffordable than ever before. More and more people are looking at the situation and saying that they are giving up on ever buying a home. He should finally admit that his plan for first-time homebuyers is not working. It is only actually driving prices up.
Will the minister acknowledge his record of failure, change course and actually make housing more affordable for Canadians, and not just use the same talking points?
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- Mar/21/22 6:53:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the reply, and I will summarize again what I said in my intervention.
We are five years in and halfway through the $72 billion that was promised. The Auditor General said that the Liberals actually did not spend what they said they were going to. Actually, I am kind of glad about that, because if they had spent more than they already have, we would be further in debt, and I think housing prices might be even higher. We need to stop printing money and debt and giving it to people, which is inflating the market.
The national housing plan is not working. Here are some ideas that the Conservatives are proposing: ban foreign buyers, which the government had an opportunity to do through a committee but refused to do; tackle money laundering; make changes to encourage building more apartments and rental housing; and look at mortgage and lending rules and incentives.
We need to invest urgently, in my view, in infrastructure for water and sewer, which presents an issue in my riding. We can talk to the mayors of my riding in Glen Walter, Winchester and Ingleside for examples of where that challenge is.
Habitat for Humanity is a wonderful organization and social housing is helpful in our community, but we need more action and we need more resolve. Again, clearly, the direction with five years in of a 10-year plan has failed to date, and my riding of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry is a good example of that, unfortunately.
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- Mar/21/22 6:46:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise tonight to follow up on my question period topic from a few weeks ago on the issue of housing and the crisis our country finds itself in.
Having only 35 seconds to ask a question in question period is not the easiest to summarize a major national issue. I hope this 10-minute back and forth tonight will be a bit more helpful.
I hear repeatedly across my riding, whether in the city of Cornwall, the united counties of SDG or in Akwesasne, from a number of people who are struggling when it comes to housing and, equally as important, the rental market in our region. I know our region is not unique. Frankly, it is a national crisis we find ourselves in today.
As opposition MPs, we are not on the government side. I wish we were, and I aspire to get there some day. One of the things I want to address is that part of our job as the opposition is to propose ideas, and I have a few that I will suggest later. It is also to scrutinize and ask tough questions about what the government has proposed. In this case it is to address housing, to present some facts and figures of the reality of what has happened in the past few years, and to bring a local context here to the floor of the House of Commons. Sadly, I can do that, again between Cornwall, SDG and Akwesasne, because the stats and figures paint a very bleak picture when it comes to housing affordability for Canadians.
The Cornwall and District Real Estate Board and its president, Troy Vaillancourt, recently gave the February statistics of where the housing situation was in our region. The average price of homes sold in February 2022 was a record $434,000. That was up 28.5% from last February. If we go back five years, housing prices in Cornwall and area have doubled since that time. Active listing supply is a major challenge on this problem. Active listings were down 65% below the five-year average, and 81% below the 10-year average for the month of February.
As we talk about this, we are likely going to hear, in the response from my colleague across the way, the Liberals trying to tout their national housing plan. It is a 10-year plan that was introduced in 2017. Simple math would tell us that it is halfway through. We are going to hear a sunny ways picture of the billions here and the billions there that they are spending to help the housing market.
Five years in, I would encourage the Liberals to pull back on that plan because it is clearly not working. If the plan is to make housing more affordable and to get younger people to realize their dream of home ownership, it is absolutely not working. In my region, housing prices have doubled in five years. Rent is skyrocketing. If we talk to local real estate agents or the Canadian Real Estate Association, it is scheduled to get no better.
We need a change of course. I asked the government about this printing money and adding to debt. Even its shared equity program is absolutely flawed, and we need to make sure that it never comes back again. All that giving new homeowners interest-free money to buy new houses is doing is raising prices further. More and more people are realizing they can borrow more interest-free loans, and it is making the market even worse.
I will ask the government a question again in my comments, and in my rebuttal I will give some ideas. Will the government acknowledge that its housing plan has been a failure five years in? What could it do differently to finally make home ownership more affordable and make renting more affordable in this country?
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- Feb/7/22 2:55:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, sadly eastern Ontario provides a perfect example of how the Liberals have mismanaged the housing file under their watch. In five years the average price of a home in the Cornwall area has doubled to over $400,000. The Liberals boasted their plan is working, but the problem is only getting worse, not better. A realtor told me that one house in Cornwall recently had 13 offers in just four days and got way over the asking price.
As housing prices keep skyrocketing in this country, when will the Liberals realize that their plan to flood the market with cheap cash just is not working?
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- Nov/26/21 2:12:11 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-2
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House to give my first speech in the 44th Parliament. I want to start off by thanking the wonderful people of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry for returning me to the chamber once again. I am very grateful each and every time I come to the nation's capital and into the chamber to represent my community at a federal level. It is an honour and a privilege and not something I take lightly in the work that I do and will be doing in the House in the coming months and years, or however long this Parliament may last.
Since it is my first time to be able to speak at length, I want to acknowledge and thank my family and numerous friends and supporters who not only have been involved during the recent election campaign but continue to support me and my work in many ways, both personally and professionally. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my staff, both in my Cornwall constituency office and here on the Hill.
At the same time, it is always an opportunity for me to speak a little French. It is a work in progress. There is a francophone community in my riding, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry. One of the advantages of being in the House is that it gives me the opportunity to study a second language. I am a francophile, and I know how important the francophone community is. I study every week at the ACFO in Cornwall with my teacher, Sonia, to improve my second language.
We are finally back to work here. Sixty-two days after election day we have the opportunity to gather in Ottawa and get back to the work that people sent us to do. After $610 million were spent, it did not change the seat count here much, but here we are several months later, dealing with a bill as we continue to try to get past COVID.
This is an economic bill on government spending and there are a few things that I want to take some time to talk about specifically. The member for Yorkton—Melville just asked a good question of the previous speaker about a few areas of concern that I am hoping to use my time today to highlight. I want to highlight what I feel the government has perhaps not learned from previous support programs that have been offered as we get through the pandemic.
A few weeks ago or earlier this month, intelligence reports came out that were shared by a wide variety of Canadian media and were very concerning. The headline of an article read “Organized crime 'knowingly and actively' exploited federal pandemic benefits: intelligence reports” and “FINTRAC not sure total amount of CERB/CEBA funds may have gone to organized crime”. I also want to acknowledge the great work, at both provincial and municipal levels in my riding in the city of Cornwall, of a service manager for various provincial social services programs, who outlined a number of potential and actual fraud cases in the applications for benefits.
As this pandemic unfortunately continues, and hopefully we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, the one thing I look for when I see a new piece of legislation in the rounds of benefits is what the government has learned from previous iterations in a commitment to close those gaps. We have not seen details in the bill, and I do not believe there is a firm commitment. I have a lot of concerns about the details of that.
We have heard previous speakers from the government benches say it has the Canada Revenue Agency or various departments that will work hard to do X, Y and Z in reaction to fraud and different aspects of organized crime being involved in these programs. What members have heard Conservatives say is that as a matter of fact, we should be proactive, not reactive, when it comes to these things. There are better checks and balances as we go along, and those are going to be the things I am looking for as a member of the chamber in the coming weeks and months, as we debate the legislation.
That is a segue to talking about how we scrutinize these bills. At the beginning of the pandemic, as I and many of my colleagues have mentioned, we supported programs as Canadians needed them to get through this. It has been a challenging time economically and on the physical and mental health of Canadians. However, when we talk about doing better, we had an unnecessary election; we had an unnecessary period of 62 days to wait for Parliament to come back and, as a bit of a procedural item, it now looks like the finance committee that would normally look over and review a bill such as Bill C-2 may not even be constituted until early next year at some point, when we return in January and committees get set up, elect the chairs and so forth.
We now have the opportunity and the duty to Canadians to say that for legislation like this, we need to hear from experts such as I just referenced in the news articles and intelligence reports that were coming out.
What more can we do, as we are spending taxpayers' hard-earned money to reduce and eliminate, as best we can, fraud and organized crime from “knowingly and actively” exploiting these federal programs? I often say there is a lot of good talk and well wishes in the government saying that it will take a look at it and see what it can do.
At this point in the pandemic, when we saw the WE Charity scandal, which got a lot of attention, and the intelligence reports that got a lot of attention, I believe there is a lack of confidence among Canadians, especially when they read the reports. They see these reports being publicized and documented, and there is no clue of what is going on. Again, there is a concern that with having 62 days for Parliament to come back and table this bill, there are not enough details and prevention measures in there with respect to what we can do.
I mentioned the work of our shadow finance minister, the member for Carleton, who gave a great speech this morning and took questions in the opening round of this debate. He talked about how, as we look at this bill and at the feedback we are hearing from our constituents, there are “help wanted” signs in the windows of many businesses in the united Counties of SDG, the city of Cornwall and Akwesasne. This is replicated right across the province. We are seeing a real gap between getting people back to work and supports to reopen businesses, get them back to 100% and get our economy through this.
Inflation is something we saw referenced only once by the current government in this week's priority document: the Speech from the Throne. The government finally acknowledges inflation as a crisis, reaching a staggering 4.7%. This is an 18-year high, and an economic bill such as Bill C-2 is an opportunity to give detailed plans to address this. My friend and colleague for Carleton raised this morning that, when we look at statistics from around the world, there is a correlation between governments that spent hundreds of billions of dollars in debt and deficit spending and those that now have an inflationary problem. We were told there would be deflation. We now have inflation. There is a direct correlation. There is a direct correlation with our housing values and prices as we go forward.
From the feedback I have heard in my community in eastern Ontario, constituents and businesses want us to get back to work to create jobs and get businesses going at 100%, not pay people to stay at home. They also want us to address inflation. It is a serious strain on the quality of life and the budgets of those who are on fixed incomes, whether they are seniors, young families or people finishing school with student debt and looking to get into the workforce. We are forced to ask for emergency debates to try to get these as this bill goes forward. It needs more scrutiny. We need to hear from experts on things that can improve the bill, and we could talk about addressing getting the economy back to full strength.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak here today in the chamber. I look forward to the questions and comments. At the end of the day, let us get back to work, get Canadians back to work and get our economy firing on all cylinders again. That is what Canadians are asking for.
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