- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Kelowna—Lake Country
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $131,412.70
- Government Page
- Jun/7/24 11:52:04 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, housing starts are down, and under the NDP-Liberal government, the housing crisis continues to get worse. On the Liberals meeting their housing plan numbers, construction experts at committee have been saying that there is “not a chance” and that they are not attainable. Also, according to a new Rentals.ca monthly rent report, asking prices for rent rose by 9.3% compared to this time last year. After nine years, rents have doubled.
The Prime Minister has spent billions, but rent prices keep increasing, and building keeps decreasing. How can the Prime Minister spend so much and achieve so little?
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- May/28/24 2:34:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it was announced just this morning that, in fact, housing starts are down in my community and across the country.
In 2015, people could actually afford a home. Nine years of the NDP-Liberal government has only brought us a housing crisis.
The head of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario said that construction is down there. We are seeing this across the entire country. He said that high financing costs and development charges mean homebuilders are sitting at home instead of building homes.
Since the Prime Minister has no meaningful plan, will the Liberals vote for our housing bill put forward by the Conservative opposition leader to build the homes, not bureaucracy?
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- May/28/24 2:33:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, Canada's housing crisis is only getting worse. The Liberals claim, in budget 2024, that they are going to build 3.87 million homes by 2031. That would mean a new home completed every 57 seconds, every day. At the housing committee, I asked Richard Lyall, a home-building expert, if this was realistic, and he said not a chance. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost of housing.
Will the Prime Minister stop funding photo ops and start building the homes that Canadians desperately need?
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- Apr/8/24 2:44:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, a heavy dose of reality is that, after eight years of the Liberal-NDP government and all its spending and photo ops, things are worse.
Just today, RBC confirmed that Canada's housing crisis is only going to get worse under Liberal policies. They said that only 26% of Canadian households can afford a single detached home today. A couple of decades ago, it was 49%. The CMHC forecasts that, in 2025-26, housing starts will be even lower than they were in 2020-21.
The Prime Minister is just not worth the cost or the corruption. Will the Prime Minister actually build the homes, not bureaucracy and photo ops, in his budget?
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- Feb/16/24 11:10:48 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal-NDP government, the lives of renters, mortgage holders and the unhoused continue to worsen, with crushing costs. The facts speak for themselves. Home prices now outpace incomes by 40%, earning Canada the worst record in the G7. While American rents fall, Canadian rents hit record highs. Canada built fewer homes in 2022 than in 1972, and housing starts were down in 2023. We now have the fewest homes per capita of any country in the G7, despite having the most land to build on.
Ottawa-funded gatekeepers and punitive taxes add hundreds of thousands of dollars of unneeded costs to the construction of each home. Canada's infrastructure funding should be tied to actually building homes. On top of that, we now hear that the radical environment minister does not even want to build new roads.
Our common-sense Conservative plan will ensure that infrastructure dollars go to the municipalities to get their bureaucracies out of the way, to build homes, not bureaucracy.
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- Feb/8/24 2:54:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, the costs of rent and mortgage payments have doubled. This was at a time when housing starts were down in 2023.
Even if the Liberals' plan were to come to fruition, CIBC has reported that the plan falls 1.5 million homes short of restoring affordability. People are in a cost of living crisis, yet the Liberal housing minister jumps from one photo op to another. No government has ever spent so much to achieve so little.
When will the government build homes, not bureaucracy?
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- Nov/23/23 4:13:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member is a colleague from British Columbia, and we know that in British Columbia we have some of the highest housing prices in the country. We know that rent has doubled, and housing costs have doubled.
In this legislation that we are debating today, two of the biggest issues that we are dealing with are inflation and the cost of housing. Inflation has caused interest rates to increase which has then caused interest rate payments to be higher for people.
Could the member tell us if this legislation would address inflation or interest rates?
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- Oct/30/23 3:58:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if the member is aware of this, but there are rent controls in certain provinces in this country.
The fact of the matter is that people cannot even afford to rent the most simple of places. We have people living in tents. We have people living in RVs in parking lots. The affordability crisis is really affecting people. They cannot even afford food, let alone housing. It is driving people even further into this housing crisis because everything costs more, including the government's tax increases and the inflation that is happening, leading to interest rates that are where they are.
Everything is becoming more expensive, and it is literally driving people into places where they cannot even afford basic necessities. Those are the results of this NDP-Liberal government over the last eight years.
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- Oct/30/23 3:56:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have to look at what the results are as to why we are in this housing crisis. The results speak for themselves. People are paying twice as much for rent than they were eight years ago when the government took over. They are paying twice as much for houses. As I mentioned in my intervention, it takes as long right now to save for a down payment as it did to save for one's home. Those are the results of the government. The results speak for themselves.
It is incredibly challenging for people. I talk to residents in my community all the time. They have multi generations moving back in together and adults still living in their parents' homes. It is incredibly challenging for people and those are the results of the government after eight years.
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- Oct/30/23 3:41:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal government, Canada is in a housing crisis that the Prime Minister and the NDP-Liberal government are responsible for creating based on their decisions and policies. They want Canadians to forget how bad housing has become during their time in government. Red tape, bureaucracy and soaring costs have slowed down builders' construction of new homes when Canadians need them most.
Since 2015, house prices have doubled in Canada. Monthly mortgage costs have more than doubled and are now over $3,500 a month. It takes over 60% of Canadians' income to cover the cost of owning a home. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Canada's 10 biggest cities is $2,314 a month, compared to $1,171. Nine out of 10 young people in this country who do not own homes believe they never will.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, housing starts are dropping dangerously across the country. Housing starts are down 25% in Ontario and 10% in Toronto. In my home province of British Columbia, Vancouver is down 17% on a seasonal basis. Before the current government, it took 25 years to pay off a mortgage; now it takes 25 years just to save for the down payment.
We increasingly see stories in British Columbia of people returning to the rental market because they cannot afford their mortgages. According to UBS Group, Toronto is ranked as the world's worst housing bubble; and Vancouver is the third most unaffordable housing market on earth. We built fewer homes last year than we did in 1972, when our population was half the size; however, we see $27 million in bonuses at the CMHC, while it fails to fulfill its own mandate of affordable homes.
Conservatives have offered a plan to help Canadians in the building homes not bureaucracy act, a private member's bill tabled by the leader of the official opposition. If made into law, this common-sense bill would require big, unaffordable cities to build more homes and speed up the rate at which they build homes every year to meet our housing targets. It would reward municipalities eliminating costly gatekeepers and roadblocks based on the number of housing units completed, not just started. It would ensure that more housing units are constructed around public transit stations. It would cut the bonuses and salaries of those at CMHC if it is unable to speed up approval of applications for housing programs to an average of 60 days. It would list 15% of the federal government's 37,000 buildings and all appropriate federal land to be turned into homes people can afford. Finally, it would remove GST on the building of any new homes with rental prices below market value.
Removing the GST for rental with prices below market value is of particular importance; this would help build more affordable and attainable units for residents in my community and across the country. The Liberal members opposite know that, under their GST plan, the exemption will be used to construct luxury apartments instead of affordable units. It is simple: Canadians need homes, and builders want to build them. However, the Liberal government's failed policies are stopping them every step of the way, which has led to higher inflation and higher interest rates.
When builders are struggling to start new housing construction, the Prime Minister increases the cost to build by not having a softwood lumber agreement, making the cost of wood used for construction higher in Canada. His deficit spending has increased inflation and caused high interest rates. The Canadian dollar being consistently low compared with the U.S. dollar means that all the goods purchased for home construction, whether raw materials or refrigerators, cost more for Canadians. We can easily go across the border to the U.S. and find comparable houses at half the price.
Interest rates are higher than ever in a generation, which means higher debt costs and less money to put toward construction costs. Over 60% of the price of a home in Vancouver is due to delays, fees, regulations and taxes. Why would any person want to build new homes when the high debt costs, increased construction costs, fees and regulations seem to be never-ending? It took the government eight years to roll out its accelerator fund as part of its national housing strategy, but there is no clear, direct correlation between this fund and the total objectives of all its programs to build the 3.5 million new homes needed in just seven years, by 2030. This is the number the CMHC has given that would make housing affordable once again in Canada.
That is the legacy of the Liberals' national housing strategy. Today, my Conservative colleagues and I had the opportunity to question the president and CEO of the CMHC at the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, or the HUMA committee. My colleague from Parry Sound—Muskoka explained that, according to the Governor of the Bank of Canada, inflation and shelter prices are running above 6%. Part of this is due to mortgage interest costs, following Canada's increases in interest rates. Because of the structural shortage of housing supply and higher rents, inflation is becoming a more persistent issue in Canada.
The president of CMHC explained that in order to achieve housing affordability in Canada, we need an across-the-board increase in housing supply. He also said that CMHC recognizes that the private sector is the biggest player in supplying and building affordable housing in Canada; Canada requires private sector capital, and governments must create economic conditions that incentivize this private sector investment in housing; and innovation and addressing the skilled labour supply will help create these conditions.
Instead of demonizing the construction industry and all private sector housing providers for the lack of affordable housing, government must be focused on lowering the cost and time to build through reforms at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, ending the inflationary deficits that are driving up interest rates.
In meeting number 48 of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, in the study on the national housing strategy, the chief economist at CMHC said the following:
The “financialization” of housing is a word we hear a lot. The reality in Canada is that about 95% of the rental market is provided by the private sector, so financialization is something that exists by design in our rental market.
Conservative members believe that the private sector is not only critical but also essential to solving the housing crisis. No government can spend its way out of a housing crisis, but the government needs to provide incentives and, most importantly, taxation regimes and policies that will help keep costs and interest rates down.
At the HUMA committee today, my Conservative colleague from Simcoe North asked the CMHC president how much additional cost will be imposed through the NRCan and the National Research Council's national building code. She said that the CMHC is doing a study on this and it may have an impact; this building code has been around for about three or four years now. However, CMHC is also just now doing this study.
These are costs that are borne by the developer or the homeowner, if they are the developer, of the home or the units. Ultimately, the owner of the unit will pay the price. Some studies are suggesting that this code will cost $30,000 to $50,000 a unit.
The Liberals' record on housing has resulted in rents that have doubled, mortgage payments that have doubled, an ongoing and worsening housing supply gap and housing starting to decrease. In addition, the Liberals have no idea whether the billions spent on reducing homelessness has made any difference. The government is simply not worth the cost.
Therefore, I would like to move the following amendment:
That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following:
“the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, presented on Monday, June 12, 2023, be not now concurred in, but that it be recommitted to the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities with instruction that it amend the same to include reference to recent Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data indicating housing starts are decelerating quickly, with housing starts in Vancouver on a seasonal basis down 17% in just the last month, in Toronto housing starts in September have dropped 10% when comparing September 2023 with September 2022, Canada's national numbers show an 8% decrease in September 2023 compared to September 2022, and on a provincial level, Ontario and British Columbia continue to be hit hard, and September 2023 saw a 24% drop in Ontarian housing starts, with British Columbia showing a 26% drop from September last year, roughly 4,000 less homes than were begun last year in just Canada's two least affordable provinces; and accordingly, that it recommend that the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities take responsibility for the extent of the failures of the National Housing Strategy, the scale of the housing crisis, and the Liberal record on housing since 2015, and further recommend that the government bring in measures to address the housing crisis including measures similar to the proposals contained in Bill C-356, Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act.”
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- Sep/29/23 11:38:32 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, 97% is the percentage of shared income a household would need in order to cover home ownership costs now in Vancouver. This is from a new RBC report, which says that housing affordability in most major Canadian cities is near all-time worst levels.
The Prime Minister also holds the all-time record for incurring more debt during his eight years than all other prime ministers combined. Housing is less affordable than ever. The Prime Minister is just not worth the cost.
Will the Prime Minister finally stop his inflationary spending so Canadians can keep a roof over their head?
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- Jun/1/23 2:16:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, residents of Kelowna—Lake Country are increasingly disturbed by a Liberal government, propped up by the NDP, that does not seem to care that homelessness is on the rise. After eight years of the Liberal government, rents and the cost of owning a home have doubled, inflationary policies have poured fuel on the inflationary fire, interest rates are high and local food banks have 30% more people reaching out for help.
Encampments have now become common sights across the country, including in my community, but when I asked the housing minister what he thought about the average rent in Kelowna being over $1,900 a month, he said “it does not matter”. Instead of addressing crushing inflation and building homes, these left-wing Liberal and NDP politicians would rather defend people's living in tents. This creates safety issues for the greater community with potential fires and crime, and leaves vulnerable people to live in unsafe conditions where criminals prey on them.
An Auditor General's report noted that the federal government does not even know whether its billions of dollars spent have improved outcomes for people experiencing homelessness or chronic homelessness, or for other vulnerable groups. Every Canadian deserves a safe place to call home.
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- Apr/27/23 4:59:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in her speech, the member talked quite a bit about housing. Both of us are from British Columbia, where there is some of the highest housing costs in the country. At committee, when the housing minister was there, a Conservative asked him if he considers our housing situation in Canada a crisis. He would not acknowledge that we have a housing crisis in Canada.
I am wondering if the member can comment on that and what her thoughts are on the fact that the housing minister does not consider that we have a housing crisis in Canada.
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- Oct/26/22 2:40:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again Canadians have been slammed by another punishing interest rate hike of 0.5%, bringing interest rates to 3.75%, all brought in to combat the inflation caused by this Prime Minister.
Residents know it has never been more expensive to buy a home in Canada than it has just become under the Liberal government. Housing prices have doubled during the Liberals' seven years in power, with a typical single-family home in my region hovering around a million dollars. Nationwide, the average Canadian now spends 60% of their income on home ownership costs alone. Under the Prime Minister, Toronto has become the number one housing bubble in the world, where it is more expensive to buy a home than in New York, Hong Kong or San Francisco. Vancouver is not far behind, as the sixth highest.
It is not just homeowners who are struggling to make ends meet due to the Liberal inflation. The average rent in Canada is now over $2,000 a month, a yearly increase of over 15%. This is not sustainable.
We have a plan, as a Conservative government, to take action to address this housing crisis.
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Mr. Speaker, we have given a number of suggestions. One suggestion is that we have a lot of federal buildings that are empty, and we could use those to build housing. We have a capacity problem. We have one of the lowest numbers of houses in the world when we look at it percentage-wise. We absolutely need to build more supply.
The other part is that costs are going up. When we have supply chain issues and when we have inflation the way it is, it makes it a lot more difficult for construction and for builders to build affordable housing. If we do not get this inflation crisis under control, it is not going to help with the affordability of building houses either.
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- May/13/22 11:34:48 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Housing continues to insist that his programs are keeping up with rising home prices, but in Kelowna—Lake Country, in just the first two months of this year, the average price of a single-family home increased by $92,500. That is more than $10,000 a week. I was speaking to a 15-year-old from my riding who said the dream of home ownership is only a dream.
Will the minister finally admit that his failing housing policies are absolutely not working?
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- May/3/22 2:53:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, housing prices in my community have doubled since 2015. Former Conservative governments kept the housing market stable. HouseSigma, using house sales data for Weston, the housing minster's own neighbourhood, shows the price of a home in May 2007 was $233,500. In April 2015, it was $296,250, and in April 2022 it was nearly $800,000.
Why is the minister failing even his own constituents, who are having to pay over half a million dollars more for a home since he was elected?
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- Apr/25/22 2:54:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the housing minister is failing. The Conservatives warned that the Liberals' strategy for housing would do nothing to help housing prices, and prices doubled. We warned 30-year high inflation would trigger interest rate hikes, and we see the biggest rate increase in 20 years. We are now warning him that families are struggling to keep their homes.
Will the minister admit his failure and tell us how many Canadians will lose their homes?
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- Mar/31/22 1:48:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, one of the reasons the housing prices have increased so much is because the government printed $400 billion that was put into the market. The benefit of that was for the largest investors. They have really come ahead in this, and it has driven up prices.
Conservatives have put together and announced a task force on housing that is going to be looking at this. We had many recommendations in the platform during the last election, but now we are putting this task force together to look at it even more closely and come up with more recommendations than we have given already.
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