- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie
- Quebec
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $114,314.06
- Government Page
- Jun/3/24 2:48:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is a source of stress for many people. There is a shortage of affordable houses and apartments. For years, Liberals and Conservatives have neglected truly affordable housing. Experts tell us that we could ease the burden by converting federal buildings into housing. That is a good idea, but people are still going to have to be able to afford the rent.
Can the Liberals guarantee that 100% of available federal land and buildings will be devoted to social and affordable housing?
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- May/30/24 2:30:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the lack of housing, higher rents and the higher cost of living are the reasons why there are more and more homeless people in the streets of Montreal. We need social and affordable housing.
Under the Liberals, homelessness across the country has only gone up. Despite the promises, people do not have access to housing. The Conservatives lost 800,00 affordable housing units when they were in power. As for the Liberals, they have lost another 370,000 housing units.
What good are Liberal MPs in Montreal when they are not even able to ensure that Montrealers have a roof over their heads?
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- May/22/24 11:21:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I always find it rather amusing when the Conservatives ask questions about balancing the budget. When Harper was prime minister, they ran deficits eight out of nine years. In the ninth year, they balanced the budget, but only because they urgently sold federal shares in General Motors.
However, I would remind my colleague, who was talking about young people and the future, that we are in the midst of a major housing crisis. A national strategy was created, but seven years on, it does not seem to have worked very well, despite the $40 billion spent. About $40 billion is left in this national housing strategy fund.
Does she not agree with us that we should invest in non-profit housing first, in social housing that is truly affordable for our young people?
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- Apr/30/24 2:40:00 p.m.
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What a day, Mr. Speaker. I am glad the grown-ups are still in the room.
One in four Quebeckers is unable to live with dignity. That is a big deal. That is two million people. Some 25% of Quebeckers scrape by on less than a modest income. Money is too tight for them to buy the things they need. Meanwhile, the Liberals are handing out gifts to oil companies.
Given that housing is the biggest expense for families, when will the Liberals build housing that Quebeckers can afford?
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- Apr/18/24 4:30:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when it comes to housing, which has been in crisis for years now, the NDP made proposals and we are happy to say that the government has accepted some of them, such as using federal land and public land for affordable housing and creating an acquisition fund to buy new land and build truly affordable housing, an important concept.
In 2017, the new national housing strategy promised that all this would be fixed. However, seven years later, the situation is even more catastrophic. While it is true that historic sums of money flowed through this strategy, it ended up in the pockets of private developers and helped people make a profit. That money has not helped deliver housing that people can afford.
How can we trust the government not to repeat the same mistakes this time around?
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- Apr/11/24 2:28:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Montreal has experienced its largest rent increase in 30 years. This is a true crisis, and it is making it difficult for Montrealers to put a roof over their heads. What is the Liberal government’s solution? It is to set aside a mere 35% of the Wellington Basin project’s units for affordable public housing, meaning that two-thirds of the housing units built will be unaffordable.
Here is a simple question: Why use public land to build housing units that Quebeckers cannot afford?
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- Feb/13/24 3:10:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in a three-bedroom apartment near the Verdun metro station, there is a leak in the bathroom, the balconies are about to fall off the building, the ceilings are full of holes and there is mould everywhere. That is where Isabelle Gagnon and Maxime Pilon live with their new baby. That is the result of decades of Conservative and Liberal cuts to social housing. Rather than proposing solutions, the Conservative leader would rather insult mayors in Quebec, and the Liberals are dragging their feet on the housing crisis.
Why are the Liberals abandoning people like Ms. Gagnon and Mr. Pilon?
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- Feb/8/24 4:14:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I particularly enjoyed the end of my colleague's speech, the part about compassion.
This is because of not her comments or because of the motion the Bloc is presenting, but in some Quebec media, some columnists are using a sort of intellectual shortcut and conflating higher immigration with the housing crisis we are experiencing, as if immigrants arriving today were responsible for the shortcomings of the past 30 years in terms of investment in social and co-operative housing.
We see the vacancy rates in Montreal and Rimouski. If there is 0% housing available in Rimouski, it is not because of immigration.
I would like my colleague to comment on this shell game that is being played to try to blame immigrants for a crisis that the federal Liberal government caused in 1994 when it stopped investing in social housing.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and his passion for fighting homelessness, for standing up for people and for getting housing that is not just for the super rich, but social housing and truly affordable housing. He is very familiar with the file. It is always interesting to hear him talk about it.
In Canada, we do not have a lot of social or co-op housing. It makes up roughly 3% to 4% of the entire housing stock. In Finland, it is 10%. In Denmark, it is 20%. I think there are examples we can use.
I would like my colleague to talk about Conservative Party leader's position. It seems that his solution to the housing problem is to insult the mayors in Quebec. I would like to know what the member thinks about the Conservative leader's attitude and his lack of real solutions.
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Madam Speaker, for the most part, I agree with my colleague's observations and analysis.
I am not suggesting that removing the GST from rental housing construction is a bad measure. It was one of our proposals as well. However, I agree that this measure alone is not going to solve the housing crisis that has been going on since 1994, when the federal government completely pulled out of building truly affordable social housing.
I would like to hear his thoughts about the fact that the real solution is non-market housing, such as co-ops, community housing, student housing and, most importantly, social housing.
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- Dec/7/23 12:18:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for such an important question. The concerns of first nations, Inuit and Métis are truly at the heart of the NDP's work on social justice and true reconciliation.
I want to congratulate my colleague from Nunavut for all the work she is doing, especially on indigenous housing and on having a housing program for and by indigenous peoples. Housing is a major issue in the north in general, where people have felt the effects of Conservative budget cuts and are now feeling the effects of inadequate Liberal investments.
These people can count on the NDP, which will continue to speak out about the challenges of housing and the cost of the groceries for first nations, Inuit, Métis and all northerners.
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- Oct/30/23 4:47:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take part in this evening's debate. My question for the member for Thérèse-De Blainville is this: What should the federal government do? Eighty-two billion dollars is being invested in the construction of supposedly affordable housing. What would she like the federal government to do better in order to quickly build housing that meets the public's needs?
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- Oct/5/23 2:54:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis caused by the Liberals and the Conservatives. It is unconscionable. Outside, tents are popping up faster than truly affordable housing. People are poorly housed, living with mould, but are unable to move because they have nowhere to go. People are suffering. The solutions, however, are no mystery.
Will the Liberals buy land to build housing that meets people's needs? Will they use public land for public housing? Will they build social housing, housing co-operatives and community housing?
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her great speech.
I agree that eliminating the GST on rental housing construction is a small measure, too small to fix the current crisis. However, it is an NDP proposal, so I do want to defend it. The thing that has us concerned is that the Liberals went only halfway. They are eliminating the GST on housing construction, but with no guarantee that this will have an impact on the price of rent. There is a risk that this 5% rebate will end up in the pockets of the developer building the housing.
Does my colleague share that concern?
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- Sep/21/23 2:28:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is the result of Liberal and Conservative budget cuts to social housing and co-operative housing programs. Now we are learning that the elimination of the GST on housing construction does not include a definition of affordable housing. It is absolutely ridiculous, insulting even. What planet do the Liberals live on? Housing is a fundamental right. People's lives are at stake.
Will the Liberals put people before profits and build two million social and co-operative housing units?
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Madam Speaker, I do not often agree with my colleague. However, she raises an important point, which is the budget's inadequacies when it comes to housing.
The NDP sees that there is a housing crisis. We want social and affordable housing. We want co-operative housing.
The budget is far from perfect, and we would have done things differently. However, there is something in there that the NDP is very proud of, and that is the fact that we forced the Liberals to provide accessible dental care for the most disadvantaged and the middle class. This year, the program is going to be expanded to cover teenagers and people 65 and over who may never have been able to access dental care.
If the member votes against Bill C-47, is she prepared to abandon the idea of dental care that is paid for by Canadian taxpayers with insurance from Parliament?
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- Jun/5/23 2:46:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people across the country are hurting because of the housing crisis. They are paying exorbitant prices or are being forced to move. The Liberals are not building enough social or affordable housing and are not investing enough to maintain existing housing.
Yesterday, the NDP leader and I visited an affordable housing complex in Notre‑Dame‑de‑Grâce that had to condemn and close entire apartment units for lack of money to maintain and renovate them. That is ridiculous.
When will the Liberals wake up and make serious investments in accessible housing for everyone?
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- May/9/23 2:46:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is one of the neighbourhoods hardest hit by Montreal's housing crisis.
However, the Liberal member for this riding, who is also the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Housing, refuses to meet with the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve housing committee. Not only that, but she has not provided the organization with any Canada summer jobs positions that would enable it to help renters in the parliamentary secretary's riding.
The Liberals claim that solving the housing crisis is a priority, but their actions say otherwise. When will the Liberals address the housing crisis with the urgency it deserves?
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- May/2/23 5:20:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, for many families and workers, having access to affordable housing is the best way to lift themselves out of poverty and have a decent life. Unfortunately, we still have a major housing crisis.
The NDP believes that we need to speed things up. In her speech, my colleague stated that concern is not enough. I completely agree, but unfortunately we are finding that things are moving slowly. Social housing is the most effective solution, but there are more than 35,000 people on the waiting list for social housing in Quebec. On the Island of Montreal alone, there are more than 23,000 people on the list.
What are the member's suggestions for accelerating the construction of social housing, first and foremost, co‑operatives and truly affordable housing?
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- Apr/17/23 5:31:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague. All levels of government have a responsibility when it comes to housing. That is true. However, the federal government has fallen behind. It is appalling. Nothing has been done for years, and now we have a lot of catching up to do.
As far as Quebec is concerned, it is a shame that it took three years of negotiations between Ottawa and Quebec to finally get the money out the door and see projects get off the ground. We are very behind.
In Montreal alone, there are 24,000 people on a waiting list for social housing. Social housing is the best way to lift people out of poverty and give them a real hand up. The federal government is still not doing enough.
While it is true that a housing strategy has been put in place, it has not been improved and it is not meeting the real needs of people in the community. We want to see the federal government investing more heavily in social housing.
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