House Hansard - 106

44th Parl. 1st Sess.

October 3, 2022 11:00AM

Hon. Chrystia Freeland (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Oct/3/22 2:52:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think we are all really glad to hear today from the member for Abbotsford, who is an MP we all know and respect. I listened to him carefully during the campaign, when he said: I am deeply troubled by suggestions by one of our leadership candidates that that candidate would be prepared to interfere already at this stage in the independence of our central bank. I wonder if the member for Abbotsford has persuaded his new leader to see the wisdom of his previous comment.

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Context: House Hansard - 106 - Oct/3/22

Mr. Brad Vis (Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, CPC)

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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House Hansard - 106