- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Hamilton Centre
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $131,250.15
- Government Page
- Apr/16/24 2:49:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals' watch, life has only gotten better for big money developers, and they are raking it in while rents double for Canadians.
Why are the Liberals refusing to take on corporate developers and failing to build non-market affordable housing now?
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- Oct/17/23 4:17:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I often enjoy my debates with the hon. member for Northumberland—Peterborough South. He likes to reference his economic theory. He did some of that today in talking about the out-of-control housing crisis we have, what I affectionately call the crisis of capitalism.
I would like the hon. member to reflect on this. In 2013, in Hamilton, the average house cost was $350,000. The high end of a unionized carpenter's salary was $42 an hour. Fast-forward 10 years and the high end for a unionized carpenter's salary is $48 an hour, but the same home the carpenter builds has now doubled in price, to over $700,000. That is what we are looking at now. The reality is that the surplus value of the labourer's work, the money he or she is building and wealth he or she is creating in this country, is going somewhere, but who is not going to? It is not going to the worker.
My question for the hon. member is on his economic theory. When he looks at the crisis of capitalism and the housing crisis, would he at least have the courage today to stand up and talk about where the surplus value of labour is going? It is not going to the working class but to Bay Street, the banks and big developers.
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Mr. Speaker, we heard the hon. member speak about the housing crisis. I would like to suggest that what we have is a crisis of capitalism. We have the commodification of people's very existence, identified in the real estate investment trust that the member has highlighted. We have Vanguard, BlackRock and others. In my community, we have nine apartment buildings that are facing renovictions and demovictions.
To the people who are going to be meeting in Hamilton in about an hour, from those nine apartment buildings, what do you have to say about the crisis of capitalism and the impacts it has on housing?
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- Sep/29/23 11:50:54 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, maybe the hon. member heard my question, but clearly he was not listening, because if he was, he would know that the winter months are approaching and it is going to be life or death for the increasing number of people who are being left on the streets to live in tent encampments. Cities like Hamilton are facing double digit property tax increases in order to fill the crucial gaps in funding for social housing. In Hamilton, there is a seven-year wait-list. This is life or death.
Will the government immediately respond to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' demand for direct funding in order to repair existing social housing units in order to address our seven-year wait-list?
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- Sep/29/23 11:49:33 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Hamilton Community Foundation's Vital Signs report says that for every new unit of affordable housing built, Hamilton is losing 23 units. It also confirms what tenants have always known: Corporate landlords are evicting tenants to jack up rents at a record rate while leaving Hamiltonians out in the cold. The Liberal government is leaving people to fend for themselves while big developers are cashing in on what is left of our city's rental apartment buildings.
Will the government adopt our NDP affordable housing plan to create an acquisition fund to save the affordable rentals left in Hamilton?
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member speaks about common sense, but he has not shared any today. In fact, what he has done is list all the economic violence of capitalism and the impacts it has on everyday Canadians.
When the member talks about the housing market, he never talks about the insatiable greed of the real estate investment trusts, of the speculators, of the big corporate gatekeepers who are crushing our housing market. In fact, housing prices will not come down until the government acts to curtail inflationary investor activity in the residential market.
Just like the leader of the Conservative Party, this budget refuses to take on greedy private sector gatekeepers who are driving up the price of housing for their own corporate greed. Why are the Conservatives focusing only on municipal permitting when there are so many greedy, capitalist, private sector gatekeepers responsible for the current housing crisis?
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- Dec/7/22 10:14:27 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the hon. member quite rightly identified the need for targeted interventions. I know of her tireless work and her advocacy on the deplorable conditions of northern housing. I would like her to have the opportunity to reflect on how having the stability of dignified, safe housing for people in her community might help prevent some of the preconditions that lead to the atrocities committed against women, including Inuit women in her communities.
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Madam Speaker, I enjoy opportunities where I can find common ground with members of other parties. In particular, the Bloc brings some progressive policies to this House, including the statement we just heard about the need to decommodify the real estate market. We need to wrest control of the housing market from big banks, Bay Street and real estate income trusts, and do what the government did with the creation of CMHC, which is to be bold with a federal intervention and the creation of millions of decommodified houses.
On this talk about affordability and the Liberal government, I would say affordable for whom. It talks about affordability that is at 125% of market value, but what we know to be true is that affordability must be tied to people's ability to pay, not left up to the so-called free market of both the Liberals and the Conservatives.
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- May/4/22 7:51:21 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I could not idly sit by when I heard the previous speaker suggest that it is only through their employment that people find self-worth.
I will give the hon. member the opportunity, given the context of the debate that is before us today, to rise in this House and suggest ways in which he would be willing to support the basic dignity around housing, income supports and health care that go beyond settler-colonial resource extraction, which, quite frankly, is often at the heart of this continued perpetuation of genocide against indigenous women and girls.
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- Apr/25/22 4:42:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to begin by congratulating the hon. member for his 34 years of service and thank him for that.
I know that communities in his riding in Winnipeg are very much like mine in Hamilton Centre, yet Canada continues to see major losses in existing affordable housing as big corporations and REITs continue to scoop up housing on the market and renovict tenants. We have so many constituents who are living houseless, living in despair and dying needlessly in our streets.
Organizations such as FCM and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness have been calling for the creation of an acquisition fund to support non-profits to rapidly acquire apartment buildings that go onto market in order to preserve and increase housing affordability. Will this hon. member and his government commit to the creation of such a fund to help combat the erosion of truly affordable housing in our communities?
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