- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie
- Quebec
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $114,314.06
- Government Page
- Jun/7/24 11:29:11 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the average monthly price for rental housing in Canada hit a record high of $2,202 in May. This is unprecedented. In Montreal, a two-bedroom apartment costs $2,300 a month. It is crazy.
For decades, Liberal and Conservative governments have allowed wealthy developers to use the housing market as a casino, rather than protect the people. Prices are skyrocketing and families are being squeezed.
What will it take for this government to prioritize social and affordable housing rather than developers' profits?
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- May/9/24 2:30:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, renters everywhere are struggling to make ends meet. Groceries are expensive, rent is expensive. People are drowning in credit card debt, and it is taking a toll on their mental health.
Meanwhile, both the Liberals and the Conservatives are protecting the profits of big grocery CEOs. Why? Maybe it is because they received $150,000 in donations from Loblaws, Metro and Empire, and now they are returning the favour. Major grocery store CEOs fill Liberal and Conservative coffers, and then the Liberals and Conservatives protect the coffers of the major grocery store CEOs. If people do not have $150,000 for these parties, too bad for them. They can go into debt to fill up their fridges.
I would like the Liberals to tell us if the wonderful life of the rich and famous is as sweet as it seems.
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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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- Apr/10/24 2:51:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, rents are expensive. Groceries are expensive. Everything is expensive. Quebeckers suffer while the CEOs of the big grocery stores line their pockets at their expense. Instead of making these fat cats pay their fair share, the Liberals are giving them a $60-billion gift. Who do we have to thank for this? That would be the Conservatives, who gave away this money, our money, when they were in power.
This is money that could be invested in social and affordable housing, in health or in fighting the climate crisis. No, the Liberals prefer to give it to rich CEOs.
Why do the Liberals continue to line the pockets of CEOs?
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- Feb/29/24 4:39:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague, it seems, does not have to rely on social programs to send his children to day care. Maybe he has the means to pay $60 or $80 a day for those services. However, not everyone has that kind of money. Not everyone has grandparents or neighbours who can look after their children. That keeps some people, especially women, out of the workforce.
How can my colleague consider Quebec's social programs and policies such a great success, but refuse to offer the same thing to the people he represents in the rest of Canada?
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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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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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- May/4/23 4:45:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am going to paraphrase an expression to avoid using unparliamentary language. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
There is something here that looks a lot like foreign interference, and the facts are piling up. After everything we have learned in the last few weeks, should there not be an independent, transparent inquiry to shed light on foreign interference? We need to restore the public's confidence in democracy, our institutions, the Prime Minister's Office and our security services.
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