- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Courtenay—Alberni
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $148,159.67
- Government Page
- May/7/24 5:46:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in the almost nine years that the government has been in power, we have seen that it has not reinstated co-op housing and scaled it up to the 25,000 units a year we were building in the seventies and eighties. The Conservatives built none.
We were able to get the Liberals to come gradually on, with a small amount in the last budget, but we are still not seeing that built. Now we have a pile of money in housing, but they have not told us how many units they are going to build of co-op housing. We are short almost 700,000 units. One just needs to go outside to see what this looks like; there are homeless people everywhere. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives have a free market approach to an affordable housing crisis. There is nowhere in the world where the free market has solved an affordable housing problem. It is a myth and a falsity, and it will not happen.
Will my colleague please tell us when the government is going to get back into non-market housing, because it is going to be required instead of these free market trinkets, and actually build some non-market housing to solve this affordable housing crisis?
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- Apr/8/24 7:58:32 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I want to talk about solutions. My colleague from Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing sent me a letter from the mayor of Kapuskasing, and he wanted to talk about solutions to Canada's housing crisis. He cites that they can be found in the forest.
He cites that Canada can:
Actively promote Canadian wood and mass timber solutions within a federal affordable housing strategy.
Establish a harmonized regulatory framework for permitting processes to expedite approvals safely and responsibly.
Adopt a performance-based approach and increasing tall wood building height allowances in the National Building Code.
Promote nationally certified, prefabricated building typologies for wood-based structures that meet municipal standards.
Offer incentives for developers using a high proportion of Canadian wood products in new construction.
Support the development of a future-ready skilled workforce through standardized green education and training programs.
That is something my colleague from Timmins—James Bay has been working very hard on.
Does my colleague agree with those great recommendations from the mayor of Kapuskasing?
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- Oct/30/23 6:09:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I find it quite ironic when Conservatives rise in this House and blame the NDP when they are responsible for losing 800,000 units when they were in government.
Also, they have not negotiated or gained any housing in the whole eight years I have sat in this place. New Democrats have been trying to get getting housing built. If we were in government, there would be much more. We would have a plan to make sure that everybody has a place to live. We were able to negotiate over $7 billion for indigenous people.
All I hear about the Conservatives' plan is to sell 6,000 public buildings and 15% of federal public lands. We know how that works. We saw Doug Ford in Ontario do it with the Greenbelt. He lined the pockets of a handful of developers for billions of dollars, $6.8 billion.
What is my colleague going to do to make sure that does not happen with federal lands and buildings if that is the Conservatives' plan?
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Oct/30/23 5:39:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I grew up in co-op housing, so I know how important it is. Back when I grew up in the era of non-market housing, we were actually building non-market housing, at about 25,000 units a year. This was before the Liberals pulled out of the national housing strategy and then the Conservatives carried on with building nothing.
Right now, we are at 3.5% non-market housing. Europe is at 30%. Can members guess where we are at 30%? It is for REITs, the corporatized ownership of residential housing. We should not have that. Long Beach Auto in my hometown of Tofino is closing its doors because the owner cannot find staff housing. His brother-in-law, Ryan, who owns Mobius Books, says his biggest challenge is homeless people everywhere. It is impacting small business.
The free market is having a free ride. While the Liberals are claiming victory, are they going to finally step back in and make up ground on non-market housing in this country?
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Madam Speaker, I know that when it comes to the Conservatives in Ontario, it is the developers who are benefiting when it comes to housing, which is the conversation of today.
We have heard the federal Conservatives talk about selling off government land and government buildings. As New Democrats, we would see benefits in leasing those lands and working with the developers and non-market housing groups to develop housing. My question to the member is this: Is the Conservatives' model more like a Queen's Park, Ontario Conservative, Doug Ford greenbelt model, or would their model actually have safeguards to protect the public from developers and their friends?
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Madam Speaker, I really appreciate the comment and we are on the same page: that we need a wartime-like effort. We need to use every tool in the tool box to deal with this. Right now, the government does not have a plan. It has no plan on how it is going to build 3.5 million homes, and this is what we need to do in this chamber. We need to have that conversation and bring forward ideas. Like I said, let us use some public land, but let us keep it in public hands, leasing and working with the private sector to ensure that we can build affordable non-market housing.
This free-market approach will not work. It has not worked anywhere in the world to solve an affordable housing crisis and it is not going to start working now. I want to work with my colleague because we need a plan and right now the current government is a rudderless ship. Removing the GST on rental housing is low-hanging fruit.
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- Jun/21/23 8:10:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we have heard the Liberals say that they have everybody's back. I do not know about other members, but where I live, when I drive around, I see more homeless people than I have ever seen in my entire life. It can be seen right across the country. At least with the Conservatives, we know they are not going to build purpose-built housing. However, that is what the government promised. It is building approximately 7,000 units a year, on average. There are 300,000 people who have core housing needs right now. How is that having people's backs?
This is a crisis. When is the government going to stop propping up its wealthy friends and its real estate income trusts and make sure it invests that money into making sure people have a place to live?
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- Mar/23/23 10:35:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about selling off 15% of government buildings to ensure there is adequate housing for Canadians.
We used to build 25,000 co-op units a year before the Liberals killed this in 1992. The Conservatives did not build any. In fact, under the Conservative government, rents and property prices doubled.
My colleague talked about supply. Would he agree that, when selling those government assets, it should be certain and there should be covenants in place so they go to non-market housing? Nowhere in the world has free market solved the housing crisis when there is a housing shortage.
I would like my colleague to agree that they should go to non-market housing in our country.
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- Jun/15/22 8:15:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it was not long ago that we had a Conservative government that removed a tariff of 25% for those who wanted to build ferries outside of our country. That money could have been used to develop shipyards in our country. We hear from Conservatives that they want faster and cheaper ships built outside of Canada. We know we can do better.
Right now, the Liberals still are not investing in small shipyards. I appreciate the effort they are making with the national shipbuilding strategy, but they have not done that. We have invited transport minister after transport minister to come to our community to meet with the Port Alberni Port Authority to hear about this great opportunity, to meet with first nations and the City of Port Alberni. We have had support from, as I said, BC Ferries and many others.
We have done a third party assessment of this proposal and it is coming out with solid support, yet there are still no supports. We know that we do not currently deal with ship-breaking, for example, in the right way. This could be an opportunity, as well, for us to fulfill our environmental obligations, which we are not fulfilling.
Hopefully, we will be able to work together on developing this important piece of infrastructure.
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- Jun/15/22 8:08:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege tonight to rise to talk about a project we would like to see in our riding for a floating dry dock in the Alberni Valley. We have the only deep-sea port on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and we have an incredible company, Canadian Maritime Engineering, that is working in partnership with the City of Port Alberni and first nations and that is well supported in our region. We would like to see it expand and create a floating dry dock to fill the void of floating dry dock space, which is currently under incredible demands and pressures. I was at the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference in 2018. It was cited that $3 billion was needed annually for floating dry dock repair and maintenance, and that capacity was full.
When this project first came forward, BC Ferries provided a letter of support, citing the need for floating dry dock space. Mark Collins, the CEO and president of BC Ferries, visited the port himself. He wrote that letter of support and was pleased to support the application. We know that currently BC Ferries has set out $3.5 billion to $4 billion over the next 12 years in infrastructure for new vessels. It spends about $150 million annually on ship repairs, which is quite significant.
We know this has been a long-standing vision. I approached Transport Canada a few years back to talk about this important opportunity. It cited that there was no current funding mechanism available for floating dry docks, yet we have seen huge amounts of money invested through the national shipbuilding strategy, which is absolutely critical and important in Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax. We have the longest coastline in the world, so it is absolutely essential that we support marine infrastructure throughout our coastal communities, as Norway has done. Mr. Collins cited how Norway went on a robust program of developing its small ports for ship maintenance and repair, and as a result has built more resiliency in these local communities.
Not to take away from those important shipyards, but we have heard Irving Shipbuilding in your home province, Mr. Speaker, citing that it needs $300 million more to fulfill its obligations for the national shipbuilding strategy. I am not saying that I am opposed to it, but I have to say that the frustration is real when we have an opportunity to fill dry dock needs right on Vancouver Island for the Pacific northwest. It may not be for the military, but certainly we could help and offer federal government supports when it comes to maintenance and repair for the Coast Guard. We have an incredibly skilled workforce right in Port Alberni. We have electricians and welders, as well as people who are working outside of the community who could return home. It is the most affordable place in southwestern British Columbia.
Right now the Province of B.C. is embarking on a very important and historic study to look at shipbuilding and to support the shipbuilding sector in British Columbia. The Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, Ravi Kahlon, said the province is developing a “comprehensive shipbuilding strategy [that] will allow B.C. to take full advantage of...coastal strengths and build a healthier, more sustainable marine economy”.
The Province of B.C. is going to need a federal partner, and I want to know that the federal government is going to be there to provide resources and help solve the problems we have. I am hoping that tonight we are going to hear from the minister that the government is going to be there to work with us, with our communities and with first nations. It is an important step toward reconciliation in the community where I live, and I think there is no better place than the Alberni Valley for this project.
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Madam Speaker, I would say we are getting a start and we are talking about thousands now when it comes to co-op housing, but it falls far short of the 25,000 units we were building per year in the 1970s and 1980s. That is still 19,000 short of what we were doing then. How are we going to make up the gap?
Right now, the federal government's plan in terms of filling the workforce labour market shortage is to bring in new immigrants, but it does not tie housing to immigration. There are huge problems when it comes to the lack of cohesive planning, when it comes to housing and ensuring that we have a strong workforce.
In terms of indigenous housing, there is some money in the budget, which New Democrats helped negotiate, to get this agreement going. We talked about the agreement as the floor. We have much work to do. I have lots more to say on this, and I will.
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