SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Member of Parliament

Richard Cannings

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • NDP
  • South Okanagan—West Kootenay
  • British Columbia
  • Voting Attendance: 61%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $128,729.57

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 254 - Nov/23/23
Mr. Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay, NDP)
  • Nov/23/23 4:31:32 p.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, the member got to the point towards the end, under your guidance. I would like to stay on the topic of the bill and talk about one of the main things this bill would do, which is that it would take the GST off of purpose-built rentals to promote the building of new rental accommodations. In my riding of South Okanagan—West Kootenay, it is almost impossible to find rental accommodation. When I talk to the city planners, they say that every day they are building more housing units than they have ever built before, but every day there are fewer affordable housing units because they are being lost to Airbnbs, people buying holiday homes, etc. The people buying the new housing units are the people who can afford them, and they already have houses. What is the member's government doing to actually build affordable, non-market housing that would really make a difference for Canadians? Getting out of the way and taking the tax off will build more units, but it will not help people who need affordable housing.
185 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Context: House Hansard - 102 - Sep/26/22
Mr. Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay, NDP)
  • Sep/26/22 8:51:59 p.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, just to follow up on the theme of planning ahead, again, in my riding we have had serious disasters, flooding especially but also fires. One of the issues that really constrain us in responding to those is the fact that there is no available housing in my riding before there is a fire or flood. Suddenly, we may have hundreds of people who have been evacuated from their homes with nowhere to go and people who have lost homes who want to stay in the riding and there is nowhere to go. I am wondering if the member could comment on the need for some real, serious planning ahead to get affordable housing built in Canada so that we will not have these serious constraints when it comes to a disaster.
133 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border