44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 3, 2022 11:00AM
- Oct/3/22 6:39:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have not had a chance to table this petition since last spring when constituents in my riding of Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon were pushing the government in good faith to amend its air transport agreement with the Government of India to allow for direct flights from British Columbia to Amritsar in the Punjab. The petitioners are requesting this direct flight because it makes economic and cultural sense, and people want to have more flight options.
I would encourage government members to look very closely at this petition. The request might just fit into its new India strategy moving forward.
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- Oct/3/22 6:39:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have a number of petitions to present today.
The first petition I am rising to present is a petition that proposes to support the health and safety of Canadian firearms owners.
The petitioners recognize the importance of owning firearms and are concerned about the impacts of hearing loss caused by the noise level of firearms and the need for noise reduction. These petitioners acknowledge that sound moderators are the only universally accepted, recognized health and safety device, but they are criminally prohibited in Canada. Moreover, the majority of G7 countries have recognized the health and safety benefits of sound moderators, allowing them for hunting, sports shooting and reducing noise pollution.
The petitioners are calling on the government to allow firearms owners the option to purchase and use sound moderators for all legal and sports shooting activities.
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- Oct/3/22 6:42:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the third petition comes from folks who live in the towns of Fox Creek and Swan Hills, which are rural and remote communities in northern Alberta.
The petitioners are calling for an extension of the intermediate prescribed zone for the northern living allowance. Currently, it is an arbitrary line that runs across northern Alberta, and neither Fox Creek nor Swan Hills fall into this area. The petitioners are calling on the government to recognize that they live in remote communities and for the residents of these two communities to be allowed to claim the residency for the intermediate area.
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- Oct/3/22 6:42:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the second petition I have to present comes from Canadians across the country who are concerned about the Liberal Party's platform in 2021 that promised to deny charitable status to organizations that disagree with the Liberal Party on its views around abortion. The petitioners are concerned that this would jeopardize the charitable status of hospitals, houses of worship, schools, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations that do not agree with the Liberal Party on this matter.
Many Canadians depend on the benefits that these charities provide, and the government has previously used a values test to discriminate against applicants of the Canada summer jobs program. As such, these people are calling on the Government of Canada to protect and preserve the application of charitable status rules free from discrimination and without imposing another values test on charitable status. They also ask for an affirmation of the Canadian rights to freedom of expression.
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- Oct/3/22 6:42:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, at the beginning of May I had the opportunity to ask the Minister of Housing what the government was planning to do about the housing crisis, which has only worsened since the spring.
It is now October, and we still have yet to hear of any concrete plans about what the government is doing or when it will present real results to British Columbians and all Canadians who are struggling with critical housing needs.
According to the Fraser Valley Current, the city of Abbotsford alone is seeing a drastic decline in the number of new homes being constructed. In the last 12 months, just 670 new homes have begun construction, compared to 1,162 in the previous year. Multi-family projects, I might add, are experiencing the biggest decline.
A simple fact is that available housing supply is not meeting the needs of our communities. In fact, CMHC reports that in the month of August 2022, housing starts for the entire province of British Columbia were a meagre 3,817. On top of that, the average price for a home is still over $900,000, at $918,378. Young families simply cannot afford to live in my province right now.
In addition, across Canada, year over year, one-bedroom apartment rents were up by double-digit amounts in August in over half the markets tracked by rentals.ca. In Vancouver, it is not uncommon to see a one-bedroom or studio apartment going for more than $2,000 a month. It is just unattainable for so many people.
As we stand here in the House of Commons today, it was just over a year ago that we had a federal election, when all the respective parties put forward their plans on housing. Let us look back at some of the things the Liberal government said it would do.
The Liberals' first promise was to reduce monthly mortgage payments when people needed it the most. I cannot think of a time in the history of Canada, except for maybe the late 70s and early 80s, when mortgage payments for many people on a variable rate mortgage have increased as much as they have in the last few months.
This summer I was with a family friend who has a variable rate mortgage. She is a single mother and she said she could not take much more if her mortgage payment went up another $500 or $600, which it has. She said that the Bank of Canada said we were not going to see interest rate hikes like we have seen, and wanted to know why the Bank of Canada and the Government of Canada told her that the low interest rates were going to stay where they were. She had bought a variable rate mortgage with that information in mind, and she had been failed.
One of the second promises the Liberals made was that they were going to help renters become owners. Inflation is crippling people. I filled up my car with gas last night before driving to the airport, and I paid $2.23 a litre. In many parts of metro Vancouver, it is 10¢ to 15¢ higher than that right now. The cost of groceries, home heating, Fortis and Telus bills, everything continues to go up. The government's promise to help renters become owners has failed, because they cannot save any money. It is so hard.
A third promise the Liberals made last year was to end chronic homelessness or reduce it by 50% by 2027. They have failed on that, too.
Finally, there was the housing accelerator fund. What are the Liberals doing to help communities actually reduce red tape?
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- Oct/3/22 6:47:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the government recognizes the pressures faced by Canadians with the current housing market. We recognize that home ownership is out of reach for far too many Canadians. That is why we made housing a cornerstone of our last budget. The government presented the most ambitious plan that Canada has ever had to increase the supply of housing and make it more accessible for everyone in the country.
My colleague dismisses this government's past and present housing efforts, but his constituents may not. Twenty families from the Cook's Ferry Indian Band and the Leq'á:mel and Splatsin First Nations have housing as a result of the rapid housing initiative, and some 1,000 other units and beds have become available in this riding alone with federal funding. These success stories are happening in ridings across the country.
This government is proud of the efforts it has made to date and we are committed to doing even more. Our plan includes many provisions that will help people who are trying to get into the housing market for the first time. These provisions include the extension and expansion of the first-time home buyer incentive.
First-time homebuyers can also take advantage of a new tax-free savings account. This homebuyer incentive will help them save up to $40,000 for the purchase of their first home. We have also doubled the first-time homebuyers' tax credit to $10,000, providing up to $1,500 in direct support to homebuyers.
One of the drivers of rising house prices is simply that supply is not keeping pace with demand. That is why we have increased funding in our budget to double residential construction over the next decade. To that end, we will invest $4 billion to create a new fund to accelerate housing construction with the goal of building 100,000 net new units within five years. This fund and other related measures will help provinces, territories and municipalities build more housing faster.
We will also accelerate the construction of housing by providing $2.9 billion in funding through the national housing co-investment fund. This will enable us to support the creation of up to 4,300 units and facilitate the repair of up to 17,800 units for the people who need them most in this country.
Our government made housing a priority. As soon as we took office, we realized the extent of the impending crisis. During this time, we have brought in a wide range of strategic measures, including the first-ever national housing strategy.
These strategies include the first-time homebuyer incentive as well as other successful programs, such as the rapid housing initiative. Our budget provides $1.5 billion over two years to extend this very successful program, which constantly exceeded its affordable housing construction targets.
Far too many people in this country struggle to find safe and affordable housing. Although the government has already taken excellent measures that we can describe as historic to help these people, we know that we still have a lot of work to do. I would invite my colleague and all opposition members to support the measures we will be presenting over the coming weeks and months.
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- Oct/3/22 6:50:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada needs to separate its rhetoric from reality when it comes to housing. We do not want to hear about announcements or committed funds.
I am going to give the parliamentary secretary an opportunity to answer a straightforward question tonight. She talked about the housing accelerator fund that plans on creating 100,000 net new homes by fiscal year 2024-25 by changing the systems that are preventing more housing from being built. How many homes have been built under that program?
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- Oct/3/22 6:51:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I would like to remind him that he himself voted against this measure, which was in our most recent budget. I hope he will now be able to support initiatives like the one-time $500 top-up that I hope we will pass soon.
All the measures that were recently announced in the budget will be implemented soon. Thanks to the new national housing strategy that my colleague is very familiar with, we have invested almost $29 billion to help people and create more than 380,000 housing units across the country.
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Madam Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to come back to the need to urgently move forward with the Canada disability benefit. For every day this is not funded, 1.5 million Canadians with disabilities will continue to live in legislated poverty. In my home province of Ontario, for example, the Ontario disability support program is a meagre $1,169. The shelter allowance is less than $500. It is not enough for a single apartment in Kitchener.
Many, of course, are disappointed that this is the same bill tabled back in June 2021, so more than anything else, this is about trust. The governing party needs to demonstrate it is serious about following through on the Canada disability benefit. This includes moving the legislation forward, Bill C-22, with openness to amendments that would improve it, as well as funding the benefit.
Tonight, I have five questions for the parliamentary secretary from the disability community.
The first is whether the governing party is going to demonstrate that Bill C-22 is a legislative priority. We had the first day of debate on this two weeks ago, and it is not projected to be back until we break at the end of this week. We know that every day delayed is another day that Canadians with disabilities live in legislated poverty. Every day matters, so I am hoping the parliamentary secretary will answer when he can commit to having Bill C-22 back for debate in this House.
Second, the minister said that negotiations with the provinces are an issue, so I wonder if the parliamentary secretary can share where the negotiations stand, what meetings have been had and what the sticking points are.
Third, the minister also shared that another slowdown, in her view, is the need to sort out eligibility, yet we know there are existing federal, provincial and territorial programs that the Canada disability benefit would supplement. The question is why this is taking so long. It has been over two years since it was promised in the 2020 Speech from the Throne, and we know that existing program eligibility lists can and should be used as a starting point. Also, the minister continually refers to “working age” Canadians with disabilities when we know that 10% of Canadians over the age of 65 with a disability are living in poverty. Is the intention not to include them as well?
Fourth, let us not gloss over the important need to fund the benefit. If done properly, this would be a significant investment, but as someone who has advocated often about the climate crisis in this place, I know the federal government has recently committed $8.6 billion to oil and gas companies for a new tax credit for carbon capture and storage. The fact is that budgets are about priorities, so the governing party has the opportunity to demonstrate that Canadians with disabilities are a priority. When will it commit to a timeline for funding the Canada disability benefit? Is it the fall economic statement, budget 2023 or something else?
Last, the minister has estimated that this could take 12 to 18 months. Those living with a disability will continue to live in poverty throughout this time. I am hearing from Canadians with disabilities who are applying for medical assistance in dying because they feel they have no other option since they cannot afford to live. The federal government is letting them down when we know from the pandemic that it is possible to move urgently when the moment calls for it. What is the federal government prepared to do to provide emergency funds in the short term?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and friend, the MP for Kitchener Centre, for his words this evening, his sense of urgency and his tireless advocacy on behalf of Canadians with disabilities.
As my colleague the hon. Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion has already said, we are not playing games. We are not playing games when our fellow citizens are facing poverty. We do not play games; we take action. That is exactly what we have been doing since forming government in 2015.
Our work began with the Accessible Canada Act, which led to the creation of Accessibility Standards Canada. Recently, the act also led to the appointment of Canada's first chief accessibility officer, as well as Canada's first accessibility commissioner to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. What is more, we launched the first-ever National AccessAbility Week in 2019.
When the pandemic hit, we provided a one-time payment of up to $600 to persons with disabilities, a payment that was expanded to include the 1.75 million Canadians who receive federal disability benefits. We are also providing income supports to students. We are making other investments to increase employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
Allow me to mention that budget 2022 strengthened support for an employment strategy for persons with disabilities. It accomplishes this by providing more than $270 million for its implementation through the opportunities fund for persons with disabilities.
Of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention that we launched Canada's first poverty reduction strategy, which recognizes that, for many reasons, certain groups of Canadians are more vulnerable to poverty. Right now, we are working hard to create Canada's very first disability inclusion action plan. The cornerstone of that plan is the groundbreaking Canada disability benefit. Bill C-22 defines an approach that would establish the Canada disability benefit in legislation.
I understand very much that my hon. colleague would like Bill C-22 to move through the House quickly. I too want nothing more than to see Canadians with disabilities receive the new Canada disability benefit as quickly as possible. That is why, in the spirit of “nothing without us”, we have been working tirelessly alongside the disability community, as well as with the provinces and territories, to ensure that every person who receives the Canada disability benefit will be better off because of it.
It is true there is more work to do. I agree with my colleague that time is of the essence. As the hon. minister has said in the House, I encourage all of my colleagues to work together to pass Bill C-22. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to significantly reduce poverty for hundreds of thousands of working-age Canadians with disabilities. Let us not miss that opportunity.
We know persons with disabilities have waited a long time for this. That is why we are working as quickly and as efficiently as possible to deliver the historic Canada disability benefit. We are proud of this work.
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Madam Speaker, respectfully, this is not my advocacy. In fact, it was the member for Port Moody—Coquitlam who put forward a unanimous consent motion in the House calling on the governing party to move more quickly on the Canada disability benefit. Therefore, I will reiterate the five questions I shared, in the hope of getting an answer to at least one of them. I have not heard an answer to any of the five yet.
First, when can the parliamentary secretary commit to Bill C-22 being back on the floor of the House?
Second, where do the negotiations stand with provincial and territorial partners?
Third, why not use existing lists from existing disability support programs?
Fourth, when will the government commit to ensuring the benefit is funded?
Fifth, what will the government do in the short term to provide emergency supports for those who need it most?
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Madam Speaker, we know we need to address the long-standing financial insecurity that is the lived reality of far too many working age Canadians with disabilities. With Bill C-22, we are clearly demonstrating our commitment to lifting persons with disabilities out of poverty. As we wait for the bill to be passed, we are working diligently with all our partners to lay the groundwork for the next steps.
We will continue building on the success of the past years, such as the Accessible Canada Act and the poverty reduction strategy. We are already working with our partners to iron out all the details so that Bill C-22 can move quickly through the House.
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- Oct/3/22 7:01:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I asked on May 20 whether the finance minister would keep her promise to support the long-term interests of wineries and cideries, especially smaller businesses like the cideries in my riding of Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, or just continue to tax them into bankruptcy. I want to thank the finance minister for listening to those of us in opposition, especially those in the Conservative Party, the Bloc Québécois and even, I believe, the NDP, who were calling for an exemption so that Canadian wineries and cideries using Canadian honey or apples could be exempt from the excise duty.
That being said, I would like to remind the Liberal government of the following facts.
Canada has thousands of high-quality wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries. Over 95% of these producers are small businesses, many of which have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the inflation crisis, payroll tax increases, labour shortages and the ongoing supply chain issues. Small businesses have taken on an average of almost $170,000 in new pandemic-related debt over the last couple of years.
The cost of living continues to increase faster than prevailing wages. Agriculture producers are already facing serious supply chain disruptions, and the hospitality sector was one of the hardest hit during the pandemic. These continued Liberal increases in the excise tax on alcohol will hurt the entire industry, from growers to producers to restaurants to consumers. Furthermore, as a consequence of 40-year record inflation, the tax increase will be higher than ever due to it being tied to the consumer price index.
Canada’s excise duty regime is already uncompetitive compared with those of peer countries, and the escalator makes it worse. Now is not the time to make doing business more expensive via another tax increase.
Tonight, will the finance minister commit to supporting Bill C-266, which would repeal or amend the annual adjustments to the duties on beer, malt, liquor, spirits and wine, or at least freeze the escalator tax and stop the annual increase?
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- Oct/3/22 7:03:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound for his focus on Canada's world-class wine industry. From British Columbia to Ontario to Atlantic Canada, hundreds of wineries and cideries continue to drive our economy, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and providing billions of dollars in economic benefit.
Wine country tourism attracts more than four million tourists a year and contributes over $1.5 billion to the economy. Over the past five years alone, employment in the industry has grown by 70%, to about 8,500 jobs. Wine sales have almost doubled, to over $2 billion, and sales of Canadian alcoholic ciders have increased over 80%, to more than $240 million.
We have worked hand in hand with the industry to create a program that would help it remain competitive. In June, our Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food announced a two-year program of up to $160 million. It is a wine sector support program. The program is now up and running and is providing wineries with the tools they need to stay innovative and competitive and to capitalize on new opportunities.
All licensed wineries in Canada that produce or contract out the production of bulk wine from primary agricultural products, such as grapes, berries, other fruits, dandelions, rice and sap, are eligible for support under the program. For example, a grape winery that produced 100,000 litres of wine in the past year may be eligible to receive about $80,000 through the program.
Canada's wine industry is robust and largely rural-based. The industry faces various challenges impacting its competitiveness, such as climate change, geography and labour costs. Support from this new program will enable the wine industry's businesses to become more resilient and will provide economic stability within the industry.
The program is intended to support Canadian wineries as they adapt to ongoing and emerging challenges over the short term. The bottom line is that we stand firmly in favour of supporting this industry in its growth, economic development and ability to export. To quote Kelly Brown, chair of Wine Growers Canada, “Thanks to the leadership of the Government of Canada, Canada's wine industry is ready to grow back better.”
I want to thank the four wineries back home that make great wine. I am sure my hon. colleague and I could compete over who has the best wine.
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- Oct/3/22 7:06:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, to push back, I am not going to argue with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food about who has the best wine. I have more orchards and cideries, even though I do have a couple wineries in my riding.
I am a little disappointed because the parliamentary secretary did not answer my two simple questions: Will the government commit to supporting Bill C-266 that will repeal or amend the annual adjustments to the duty on beer, malt liquor, spirits and wine, or at least freeze the escalator tax and stop these annual increases?
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- Oct/3/22 7:07:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there are various ways we can support the wine industry. As I outlined in my speech, we provided $160 million, but we are always open to new ideas. I know my hon. colleague is going to be waiting for the government response on the bill he just mentioned.
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- Oct/3/22 7:07:36 p.m.
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The motion that the House do now adjourn is deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).
(The House adjourned at 7:07 p.m.)
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