- Member of Parliament
- Member of the Subcommittee on Review of Parliament’s involvement with associations and recognized Interparliamentary groups
Deputy House leader of the New Democratic Party
- NDP
- London—Fanshawe
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $131,911.16
- Government Page
- May/9/24 11:17:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague across the way is my constituency neighbour in London. I also have to admit that his daughter is ridiculously adorable.
We were at an event a few months ago, and the hon. member was talking about some of the different innovations within housing. He was talking about mobile units potentially being built. I think he was in Alberta to visit a plant there. I had conversations about those mobile units with members of a firefighters union when they were here in Ottawa, and a concern was raised. We spoke about the construction of the units and how the firefighters are maybe not being consulted with respect to codes and so on.
Could the member talk about that? Innovation in housing is very important, but so is safety.
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- May/9/24 9:52:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the federal housing advocate has called out the government for failing to uphold Inuits' right to housing. For the people in Nunavut especially, and my colleague has done an incredible job of representing them, there have been significant failures to address the significant housing shortage there now.
We were pushing for the federal government to provide Nunavut's request of $250 million in housing in this fall economic statement. Could he explain why that did not happen and when the federal government will meet its obligations to people in Nunavut?
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- May/2/24 6:45:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a tough question because there are so many, but I do appreciate the member's question. Again, it is with that desire to work together, so I want to highlight that as well.
It is really problematic, however, that we are going to be waiting so long to see the increase in spending that we need in devotion to housing. I have spoken to officials who have raised this for the bases in Halifax and in Wainwright, but it is across the board. Further to the study we have done at committee, we need to really focus much more on this.
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- Apr/11/24 2:29:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces have faced a military housing shortage for decades. Under both the Liberals and Conservatives, military housing has not been built; existing units are falling into disrepair. Now the Liberals want our armed forces to wait another two years before they even start building homes. This delay is unacceptable.
Why is the minister delaying building urgently needed homes for the men and women who serve our country?
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- Feb/15/24 3:43:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest, and a lot of the member's speech was about housing. It is false to describe the housing crisis we are in now as starting only a year ago, eight years ago or the length of the government. I would argue that it has been caused by consecutive governments, both Liberal and Conservative, ignoring the investments that needed to be made into housing over the last 30 years. I would like to hear the member's explanation for that.
We are now at this arbitrary 30-day deadline, and there are other things that governments were apparently totally in support of but did not do. I think of my colleague from Timmins—James Bay bringing forward a national palliative care motion. Everybody supported it, but nothing was done. In 2019 in this place, we brought forward the national suicide prevention strategy. Everybody believed in it, but nothing has been done.
Now that we have these 30 days, we are again in a crisis. What does the member have to say about the other protections we need to bring forward that have been presented in this place?
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- Nov/27/23 2:31:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, a 45-year-old woman in London, Ontario, who works full-time and makes above minimum wage is living out of her car because this government failed to offer her affordable housing options.
While the out-of-touch Liberals fail to deliver homes people can actually afford in their community, the corporate-controlled Conservatives sold off 800,000 affordable homes to rich developers when they were in power.
Canadians deserve better. When will this government start building homes people can actually afford so that they do not have to live out of their cars?
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- Nov/23/23 7:13:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am at a loss in terms of the ridiculousness of the answer to the previous question, saying that the government has no place in housing. That is why we are in this crisis in the first place. It is because government has stepped away from the business of building houses and has left it to the market when, ultimately, housing is a human right. We cannot live without it, and we therefore expect that a government has to take it into account.
I have heard from home builders. They are doing wonderful things in our community, but they do not do it out of the goodness of their heart. They do it for a profit, and that cannot continue when people are left homeless and dying on our streets as winter comes forward.
How can the member possibly defend his position?
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- Sep/21/23 2:29:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals finally listened to the NDP and tabled their housing plan to remove the GST from building new homes, but people in London are getting evicted by rich developers. Liberals and Conservatives have spent the last 30 years creating this housing crisis and have caused people in my riding, like the tenants of Webster Street, to be pushed out of their buildings so a corporate landlord can be even greedier.
The Liberal plan does nothing to stop profiteering landlords from throwing people onto the streets, so please, will the government steal another idea from the NDP and announce a housing acquisition fund so co-ops and non-profits can keep people in their homes?
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- Jun/21/23 8:25:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I notice that my colleague said the “support” of the NDP, and I would like to say the “leadership” considering that only a few years ago, in the last government, he voted against that same dental care bill. However, I am really glad to see that he is now for it and sees the value of it.
One of the issues we in London share, which is shared across the country, is the issue of affordable housing and renovictions. In my riding, which is very close to his, tenants at the Webster Street apartments have been facing renovictions, and there are serious consequences.
We have called on the government to create a housing acquisition fund to ensure that rent remains affordable so that not-for-profits or cities can buy buildings that are being bought up by large market-based corporations. This is another great idea by the NDP. Could he comment on that?
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- Jun/2/23 11:48:00 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the NDP leader and I just joined a rally for Webster Street tenants last week. After living in their apartments for years, they are facing renovictions by a new corporate landlord. When the tenants organized, the owner threatened to tag and tow their cars for not paying a new $200 parking fee.
This Liberal government has allowed corporate landlords to drive up London rents. The average cost for a one-bedroom is up 28% in a single year.
Will this government create a housing acquisition fund to make rent affordable in London?
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- May/18/23 1:00:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, being from London, I am so incredibly grateful that the hon. member talked about the incredible work of Dr. Andrea Sereda, who is doing fantastic and life-saving work in London, Ontario. Among the things that she and I spoke about, she said that harm reduction has to be about more than safe supply; it needs to be about conversations in terms of why people turn to things that dull the pain they feel. One of the examples Dr. Sereda gave was housing.
I would like to hear from the member about when the Liberal government will place a moratorium on the financialization of housing, which the New Democrats have been asking for; when the government will directly return to the original mandate of the CMHC to build and create truly affordable housing, as dictated by 30% of income and rent geared to income; and when we can expect the Liberal Party to come out and support my colleague's private member's bill on a guaranteed basic livable income.
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Mr. Speaker, I will build upon my colleague's question earlier to the minister about the resources that have been provided to St. Thomas in terms of the Volkswagen plant. At lot of people in my area are excited about that for sure. There is a lot of conversation about job creation. However, within this budget, there were not many announcements about housing and supports for the people who are excited about those jobs, to be able to work and get to the plant.
I wonder if the minister could expand on that in terms of government resources and allocations into the specific housing that would be required for people to live in order to work at that Volkswagen plant.
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Madam Speaker, I hear it too. Young folks in London—Fanshawe do not know where to turn, and there is a hopelessness around that. It is unfortunate. It used to be the federal government and provincial governments hand in hand would directly build housing, and since 1995 we are short about 15,000 to 20,000 affordable units built every year by governments. That consistent decision by federal and provincial governments not to build housing has created this crisis. We need to be able to directly and quickly build co-ops and not-for-profit housing centres, and have rent geared to income so we have that balance. We need to focus a lot less on developers and people who are making a ton of money off rental income for their benefit and are not being appropriately taxed. We need to put that back into the housing stock.
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Madam Speaker, I did not hear the hon. member, in his speech, talk about the increasing cost of housing and how difficult it is for people to be able to afford that. Ultimately, here in the House, we believe that housing is a human right and that the financialization of the market through things like real estate trusts and investment trusts are part of that problem. Could the member talk about that?
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- Oct/21/22 11:15:03 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, last week I had the honour of attending a groundbreaking ceremony at the largest affordable housing development in London’s history. Vision SoHo is a coalition of six non-profit affordable housing providers convened by the London Community Foundation, and they will build more than 650 units as a mixed-use community.
This is needed more than ever in my community as Londoners are priced out of their neighbourhoods. In the last few years, the average home cost has more than doubled in London. Home ownership is now only a dream for too many. The city’s list of individuals using homelessness supports grew tenfold, and more than 6,000 people are now on our social housing wait-list.
The financialization of housing in Canada has caused a crisis in my community, which of course started because the Liberal government cancelled the national affordable housing program in 1993. However, I want to thank my NDP colleagues for pushing for a study of this financialization in the HUMA committee.
I call on the government to take the real action needed to make housing a right, not a commodity.
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Madam Speaker, I sit on the defence committee and we heard a lot about the need of those in the armed forces who are struggling with the cost of living, with having to move all the time. Families are struggling with housing costs. One of the things that was offered up was a reinstatement of the cost of living differential for Canadian Armed Forces members.
I would like to hear the member's thoughts on how that would help.
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