44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2023 10:00AM
- May/2/23 4:24:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we are doing a lot, but I will mention two key things.
One is rapid housing, which is getting a lot of housing for our most vulnerable, for new Canadians, and they are built very quickly. If we talk to mayors right across this country, they will tell members that this is a very successful program, which is why we are about to introduce the third stage. The second thing is the $4-billion housing accelerator fund, which is going to help incentivize cities to eliminate a lot of their red tape and a lot of their long timelines to get housing built in the cities.
Those are two key things that we have put into place. There are many other initiatives, but I have run out of time.
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- May/2/23 4:26:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Kenora.
Homebuyers across Canada are confronted by two massive obstacles that they must work through as they try to buy and finance a home. First, families are struggling with the devastating impact of the Liberal government's economic mismanagement and its housing plans. To great fanfare, the government announced Canada's national housing strategy in 2017 to make housing, it said, more affordable and accessible. It has been an obvious and utter failure.
Canada's home prices have doubled since 2015. Today, the average home price in this country is an eye-popping $800,000. Ask any recent buyer or aspiring buyer if they are better off today than they were eight years ago, and the answer is a resounding, emphatic no.
The second obstacle is the cost of financing a home, which has skyrocketed. Thanks to the Liberal government's massive deficit spending, Canada's debt has doubled to $1.2 trillion. On top of that, the interest rates to service that debt have skyrocketed and will soon hit $50 billion every single year.
The indirect costs of that debt are significant. Reckless spending has fuelled inflation to levels Canadians have not seen in 40 years, and this has driven up interest costs. The result is higher mortgage payments. Today the average mortgage payment in this country has doubled to $3,000 a month. These two factors have made home ownership more expensive and pushed it out of reach for countless Canadians, particularly young Canadians.
The lack of housing and higher costs have also been ruinous to home and apartment rentals. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Canada's 10 biggest cities is now $2,213, compared to $1,170 before Canada's Liberals broke the housing market. Vancouver and Toronto are now the third and tenth most unaffordable cities in the world, outstripping places like New York and London.
Big city governments that delay permits and have excess red tape and taxes can add as much as $200,000 to the cost of each new home built in this country. No wonder people cannot afford to buy a home, with prices like this being driven up by the gatekeepers.
Owning a home and raising a family are the foundation of the Canadian dream, yet for many this dream appears to be slipping further and further away. It is out of reach because the Liberals are out of touch. Home ownership has become an impossibility for too many Canadians since the Liberals first took office. In Canada, it is considered affordable to buy a home if the cost is less than 30% of a household's before-tax income. It now takes 60% of Canadians' income to cover the cost of owning a home. Those who have scrimped and saved for years to afford their first home now find themselves questioning if they can ever achieve the Canadian dream.
This crisis did not happen overnight. It has steadily worsened every year the Liberals have been in office. The Bank of Canada's governor, as well as the finance minister, led people to believe that interest rates would remain low. Today, thousands of Canadians are grappling with the stark reality that those entrusted with governing and overseeing the nation's finances failed.
The Canadian dream was once a straightforward proposition: work hard; play by the rules; finish school; get a decent job; get married; save each month for a down payment; have a family; and one day retire, owning one's home. However, for many of my constituents in New Brunswick, those who have done everything right, this dream is unattainable today. That is, no matter how hard families work or how much they save, the dream of home ownership is a mirage.
The Liberals have failed to deliver affordable housing, and that was made abundantly clear in the Auditor General's report last November, which revealed that, despite spending tens of billions of dollars, and the Liberals are great at rattling off program after program and the mounds of money they have spent, when it comes to homelessness, the numbers keep rising.
The Auditor General says that the departments responsible, Infrastructure Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada, failed to even adequately track results, instead relying on outdated national shelter data to assess the effectiveness of their programs. In fact, the government's numbers, even using numbers the Auditor General said were less than reliable, indicate homelessness has increased nationally by 6.6% since 2018. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who no longer have homes.
The Auditor General also underscored that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, which oversees the majority of the housing strategies under the government, has no idea who benefits from its initiatives. Low-income families are being priced out of the market by funding rental housing that is supposedly affordable, but proves to be unaffordable for working families. It is an absolute mess.
Housing is one pillar of the Canadian dream, and the other is raising a family, yet the high cost of living, driven by inflated housing prices, has further discouraged Canadians from that other joy of life, which is starting a family. The average household debt in Canada reached 183% of disposable income in 2022, limiting the financial freedom and security of many Canadians.
The risk of homelessness is also going up because demand for homes has surpassed supply. New Brunswick's many affordable units were purchased in the last couple of years in my riding. This has forced people out, as buyers either moved in or increased rents. Families have been forced to move elsewhere to work and live. This has had a twin impact on the labour market, as small communities now cannot keep young families, which tend to be part of the economic foundation of these economies because they provide work for businesses and start small businesses, and it is not always by choice. This is happening because they are being priced right out of their neighbourhoods.
For those who cannot move or find an affordable place to live, the result is sadly and frequently homelessness, and this has a devastating impact on one's mental health, as well as personal safety. For the most vulnerable, those who are on the edge of poverty or trying to break the cycle, there are nowhere near enough shelter spaces, supported housing for persons with addictions or disabilities, rental units, or even starter homes. It is imperative that we address the housing crisis at its core by scaling up and building more. No government program is going to solve this problem. We need to build homes for future families. The Liberals cannot, but Conservatives will get it done.
The CMHC has noted that, as of April 27, the housing shortage throughout Canada is going to worsen. The agency has predicted that there will be a 32% decline in home building this year, as the cost of borrowing remains high and building costs have risen by 20% in the past year alone.
How is the carbon tax working now? We said it was a tax on everything, and it is. It is driving up the cost of living in this country, especially on new homes. It is Canadians, despite the government insisting it is doing everything right, who are paying the price. A Conservative government would incentivize home construction across Canada.
Step one would be to fix Canada's affordability crisis is restoring credibility to Ottawa's budgets. We would restore the federal government's finances, which have contributed to inflation and higher interest rates on home buyers. We would impose penalties on big city gatekeepers for excessive obstruction of housing projects. We would require cities seeking federal funds to pre-approve zoning for high-density housing and employment on land surrounding transit stations and hubs.
Last, we will sell off at least 15% of underutilized federal buildings in its property to ensure these buildings become affordable housing for families.
We must make the dream of home ownership a reality for families again. This is the only way we can secure a brighter future for our nation, for our children and for the next generation.
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- May/2/23 4:37:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I certainly appreciated the speech of my hon. colleague. I am just not sure what side of the fence he is on because, on one hand, he wants the federal government to take more action and, on the other hand, he, I believe, as a Conservative, would agree that it is market forces that determine a lot of housing affordability and it is individuals, Canadians and companies and so on, that build housing.
Does my colleague agree with his colleagues, such as the member of Parliament for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon and the member for Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, who have said that the government should do less on housing and pull back from its investments in the national housing strategy?
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- May/2/23 4:39:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I live in Vancouver, which I think is the epicentre for the housing crisis not only in this country but around the world. It is fair to say that it is indeed a crisis.
Housing anchors us in our communities. It is not just a commodity that can be traded, purchased and sold. It is an absolute necessity. It is how people anchor themselves for work; their children go to schools and people connect to community.
This has been a crisis for many years I was just curious to put this to my hon. colleague. To hear him speak, one would think the housing crisis in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland began in 2015. I can tell the member most assuredly it did not. It started back in the early 1990s when the government of Brian Mulroney actually cancelled the federal government's participation in the national housing program and, of course, the Liberals promised to restore it and did not, so we have really had an absent federal partner for many decades.
I wonder if the member acknowledges that. Could he tell us what specifically he would do to make sure that we can build truly affordable housing and not just rely on market supply? What does he think the federal government could do to make sure that people get access to social or affordable housing?
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- May/2/23 4:41:06 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there are two points from the hon. member that I would like to respond to.
First of all, that is what makes this problem so infuriating. What began as an issue primarily for Vancouver and Toronto has now spread across the country. Even the smallest communities in my riding on the east coast, places with populations of 6,000 and 8,000, are experiencing homelessness, a lack of affordable housing and huge, huge price increases. This has been growing and I recognize that, but what is fundamental to understand is how much worse it has become over the last eight years with home prices doubling across the country. It is a tough file and there is no doubt about it, but it has become so much worse under a government that is doing everything wrong.
Where I disagree with my hon. colleague is that the NDP views the housing stock as static, as fixed, and that we have to try to control and regulate it. Our view on this side is that we need to expand the stock of homes—
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- May/2/23 4:43:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to take part in this important discussion today on our opposition day motion looking to address the housing crisis that we are seeing right across this country.
It truly is a crisis. Unfortunately, the housing minister has not been able to say that it is a crisis, but at least we have heard that terminology reflected in the comments of some of the other members of his caucus. I believe the hon. member for Davenport mentioned that it is a crisis. It is great to see that although the minister may not acknowledge it, some of the Liberal members are able to acknowledge that.
When we look across the country, we have seen that over the last eight years housing prices have doubled. Many young people feel they will never be able to own a home. The cities of Toronto and Vancouver have been mentioned by many of my colleagues. Those two cities are among the most unaffordable places to live in the world. As my colleague from New Brunswick Southwest mentioned, it takes many people up to 60% of their income just to be able to afford a home these days after eight years of this Liberal government.
It is incredibly concerning for a number of reasons. One that hits me is that the Liberal government has spent so much money on housing accelerators, housing strategies and all these wonderful things that the Liberals like to say are getting the job done, but the fact of the matter is that it is not getting the job done. The housing crisis is far worse in this country than it was when the Liberals took office.
Never before has a government spent so much to achieve so little. In fact, we have the fewest houses per capita of any of our allies in the G7, despite having an incredible wealth of land in this country.
As we know, Liberal spending has led inflation to rise to 40-year highs, making the cost of everything more expensive, and also leading to interest rates rising, making housing and constructive even more expensive. In fact, it is estimated that this coming year, there will be a 32% decline in construction. That would be a direct result of the government's policies and would make it even more difficult to build housing in this country. As well, there are 63 countries where it is faster to get a building permit for that construction than in Canada.
We have a lot of work to do to get more homes built, to speed up those permits, to make it possible to get things built in Canada once again. That includes removing taxes and fees that are, on average, adding $200,000 to the cost of every new home in Canada. When we put that all together, it is very clear that it is a housing crisis.
I mentioned Vancouver and Toronto. Obviously, these crises are in the major centres, but we are also seeing this crisis play out in my backyard, in northwestern Ontario, in communities like Kenora, Dryden, Sioux Lookout and Red Lake. Right across northwestern Ontario, there are challenges, not necessarily from the affordability side but from the supply side, in particular. Homes are being sold before they can even get to market, because there are so few available. As of now, the Kenora District Services Board estimates that there are 1,300 households currently on an affordable housing wait-list in the Kenora District. That is an increase of 1,000 in the last nine years.
I want to share a little about my own story. Recently, just in the last year, I purchased my home in my riding. It was a long process. It took over a year for me to be able to find that house. I lost out on many bids, because of the fact that there is such little supply. A house would come on the market, and it was almost impossible to get access to it unless one was right there at the front of the line. That highlights the crisis.
I did ask my sister her permission to share this story. She is moving back to Kenora after spending the last few years in Thunder Bay. She and her boyfriend both have great jobs. He is an engineer and she is taking on a new role doing X-rays at the Kenora district hospital, and they are struggling to find a place to live.
It goes without saying that this housing affordability issue is obviously a concern for the people who are struggling to find a place to live, but it is a concern for our entire economy in northwestern Ontario. We cannot attract new people to our region. We cannot attract people such as my sister to come back to the region to work, live and raise their families if they have nowhere to live.
That is one of the most major impediments to our economic development in northwestern Ontario. We have shortages of health care workers. We have shortages of workers in virtually every sector, including tourism, which is so vital to our economy in the summer months. We cannot fill those gaps in large part due to the fact there is such little housing supply.
I will share another personal angle on this. I had the opportunity to be in Thunder Bay last week for the Northern Ontario Municipal Association conference. It was a great conference, and I was able to speak with mayors from across northwestern Ontario. I also had an opportunity to catch up with some colleagues, some friends of mine from university. They are just finishing their degrees at Thunder Bay and are trying to figure out where to go next. Again, the housing challenges have led many to believe they cannot come back home to Kenora or Dryden because they cannot find a place to live, and they are not sure where they will be able to lay their roots.
Another aspect of this housing crisis that faces our region is around first nations housing. The Kenora riding encompasses 42 first nations, and many of the homes in the communities are unfortunately in disrepair. There is, similar to the rest of the country, an issue of supply. There are still far too many people who do not own their homes or who are not able to own their homes on reserve.
In fact, during my last visit to Kasabonika, I was speaking with the community representatives about their difficulty in just being able to grow. The population is growing. They have a very young population. They have nowhere to build because government regulations and government bureaucracy is making it difficult for them to obtain new land to be able to build housing, new schools and all the critical infrastructure they need.
There is obviously an incredible challenge, but an incredible opportunity as well for the federal government to work with first nations to ensure there is an equity partnership in new infrastructure developments and resource projects so we can create more economic development, good jobs and really raise the economic level to hopefully raise more and more people out of poverty to a point where they can get into a position to be able to afford their home, whether they live on reserve or off of it.
Unfortunately, I am running out of time, but I would like to speak specifically to our motion that we put forward today to deal with this crisis. What our party is proposing is to tie federal infrastructure dollars for municipalities to the number of new homes built to ensure we can speed up building permits and free up more land for development.
We are also proposing to tie federal funding to major transit to ensure there are condos and apartments around those transit facilities. Granted, that is not something we will be seeing in our riding, but it is important for the larger centres. Of course, we are working to free up 15% of underused federal properties for development. That is something that would be huge in places like Ear Falls and Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, where there is no shortage of land but there is a shortage of ability to access that land.
That is the plan we are putting forward to help address this housing crisis, and I urge all my colleagues in this chamber to support it.
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- May/2/23 4:53:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, Conservatives keep going back to punishing municipalities that do not build affordable housing and taking away their infrastructure. How can they build more housing if they do not have money for the infrastructure from the federal government, as a partner in it? They are defeating the very purpose of what they are trying to do.
I came from the municipal level before I got here, and the municipality has to be involved in any home-building projects in a community, whether it is issuing permits or making sure they are inspected properly for the Canadian building code. We cannot eliminate the so-called gatekeepers that they keep referring to as municipalities. They have to be a part of it. They have to be a part of this equation.
Again, punishing them and taking away infrastructure defeats the purpose of trying to get more housing built in any community.
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- May/2/23 4:55:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach in addressing the housing crisis. I certainly see a federal role to play in terms of what I laid out, which is in our motion today, but we also have to work with the municipalities and the provinces as well. We probably could have had a 50- or 60-page opposition motion, given the extent of the housing crisis. There is a lot of work that we can do, and I would like to work with my colleague and with the provinces moving forward.
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- May/2/23 5:03:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I respect my hon. colleague greatly, as he knows, but I have to challenge the relevance. He has gone on now for almost five minutes and has not mentioned housing once.
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- May/2/23 5:03:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I said in my preface remarks, once again, I am concentrating on the business of government. We are talking, this evening, about home ownership and renting affordability. What I am speaking about is affordability, whereby we are making it more affordable for Canadians to deal with the market conditions that are before them when it comes to housing by investing in other areas that, in fact, will make it more affordable for them to enter into the housing and renting market.
My colleague across the floor should recognize that, as I am sure he does have some business astuteness in terms of offsetting the cost of living with respect to some of the investments that the government is making.
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- May/2/23 5:08:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his comments regarding budget 2023 and the budget implementation act. He has spoken to a lot of the issues, but has not really spoken to the issue we are dealing with today, which is housing.
Perhaps he can respond to some of the issues we are bringing forward. The government's approach with its national housing strategy, this “everybody gets a pony” approach, has failed to deliver the results Canadians need, which is to get housing built. Housing prices have doubled. Monthly mortgage costs have doubled. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Canada has more than doubled.
How would the member ask his government to respond to those issues?
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- May/2/23 5:10:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, let us put aside today's Conservative motion and talk seriously about housing.
One week after the budget, the National Housing Council stated that the national housing strategy is a failure, that it is not working and that in 10 years in Canada, between 2011 and 2021, a total of 550,000 affordable housing units were lost, while the strategy only produced 115,000 units. Since the Liberals have been in power and the strategy was launched, we have moved backwards.
I would like to remind members that the National Housing Council was created by the federal government to provide advice on the national housing strategy. It has reported that the strategy is not working and it is a failure.
One of the Bloc Québécois's recommendations, and one that has also been made by the council, is to establish an acquisition fund. As it is difficult to build quickly at this time, the government should follow the lead of British Columbia, which has created a $550-million fund to help organizations or cities to purchase private housing stock, remove it from the market and ensure that it remains affordable. That is what the National Housing Council is proposing and what we are proposing as well.
Does my colleague agree that we should move quickly to do that?
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- May/2/23 5:14:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am glad to see that, like us, our colleagues across the floor are concerned about housing affordability, but concern is not enough. Since 2015, our government has been turning our concerns into actions, producing real results for real people in this country.
When we entered office, our government saw the crisis in housing affordability looming and we knew that bold action was needed. We made history in 2017 when we launched the national housing strategy, the first of its kind in this country. The strategy is a 10-year, $82-billion plan that offers grants, loans, innovation support, research funding and more.
The strategy addresses the needs of people across the housing spectrum, from homelessness, to rental housing, to home ownership. It takes a human rights-based approach to housing, focusing particularly on the people who are most vulnerable to housing needs.
We are halfway through the national housing strategy timeline, and we are on track.
Better yet, in delivering on most of the measures, we have disbursed more than one-third of the strategy's funding. With this funding, we have achieved at least 50% of most of our targets. These results include supporting the repair of more than 298,00 units, just short of the 300,000-unit target; maintaining the affordability of 234,000 community housing units, which is 60% of the target to date; and supporting the creation of nearly 120,000 units out of a target of 160,000 units.
It can be hard to comprehend such large, abstract numbers, so I am going to talk about one of those 120,000 units that were built. That unit is occupied by Bill Beaton.
Bill is a Canadian Armed Forces veteran who was living on the street before being welcomed into Veterans' House, a supportive housing facility for homeless veterans in Ottawa. The 40-unit project was created through the national housing co-investment fund, one of the strategy's flagship affordable housing programs.
For Bill, Veterans' House is not just a statistic. It is much more. It is a safe place to live. It is stability. It is a home that he would not be able to afford otherwise.
His story is similar to those of many thousands of people across Canada who have a place to live thanks to the national housing strategy. It is the story of people who were given a helping hand to access housing that they can afford and that meets their needs.
The situation has changed drastically since the Government of Canada launched the national housing strategy in 2017. Since then, we have been dealing with the pandemic, global inflation, supply chain disruptions and a war in Europe, among other things.
During that time, our government, through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, updated, improved and expanded the strategy's programs. We did so in response to the changing situation and the input of our partners. We recognize that housing is a shared responsibility and that the federal government will not meet its ambitious housing objectives alone.
For example, we have simplified processes that were found to be too cumbersome and bureaucratic, cutting processing times in half.
We have made changes to better meet the needs of the not-for-profit housing sector. This includes a special stream of the national housing co-investment fund that turns approvals and agreements around in as little as four weeks. That feedback on turnaround times led to a new program, the rapid housing initiative, a program that is very important to the riding of Châteauguay—Lacolle. It was designed to build homes more quickly for people who need them most and has consistently exceeded its targets. We have since extended it twice, helping even more people.
One of the things we have heard from our partners is that the cost and availability of land is a persistent barrier to building new homes, and so in 2019, we launched a direct solution: the federal lands initiative, a streamlined process to make surplus federal property available for use in building affordable housing. This 10-year, $200-million program is supporting the transfer of federal property to eligible proponents at discounted rates or no cost. So far, we have committed $118 million of that budget and nearly reached the target of 4,000 new affordable housing units.
Still, we must do more.
The magnitude of Canada's housing challenges is bigger than any one program can address. The national housing strategy and its programs are supporting action, inspiring innovation and providing a platform for the public, private and non-profit sectors to come together. It is through collaboration that we would build a better and fairer housing system.
I am not standing here today just to talk about these programs and their success; I am here to make a request. I ask each and every member in this House to work with their constituents to help connect them to the programs and funding available.
The national housing strategy approaches housing affordability from every angle that would have an impact. We believe there is something in there to meet every type of housing need. Every community can benefit from the provisions of the strategy, and together we can ensure that everyone in Canada has a place to call home.
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- May/2/23 5:20:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, for many families and workers, having access to affordable housing is the best way to lift themselves out of poverty and have a decent life. Unfortunately, we still have a major housing crisis.
The NDP believes that we need to speed things up. In her speech, my colleague stated that concern is not enough. I completely agree, but unfortunately we are finding that things are moving slowly. Social housing is the most effective solution, but there are more than 35,000 people on the waiting list for social housing in Quebec. On the Island of Montreal alone, there are more than 23,000 people on the list.
What are the member's suggestions for accelerating the construction of social housing, first and foremost, co‑operatives and truly affordable housing?
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- May/2/23 5:21:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent question. I am very proud to say that we have a rather large inventory of social housing in Châteauguay—Lacolle. It is not enough, but we have quite a lot of social housing units on Montreal's south shore. That is thanks to the experience and expertise that has been developed over the years.
We have many organizations that work with community groups. They are also involved in the construction of low-income housing at the municipal level. They know how to make use of the programs when they are implemented and they make sure that social housing gets built. We have had some success stories lately in terms of low-income housing. That is also thanks to the rapid housing initiative and our partnership with our neighbour, Kahnawake.
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- May/2/23 5:23:06 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the problem we have on this side is this. I will reiterate what our hon. colleague from Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies brought up earlier on. When he had the minister and the officials before committee, he asked the minister how many houses had been built in the Yukon and how many houses had been built in the Northwest Territories. The minister could not answer that and neither could the officials. Then, we had our hon. colleague from the NDP, the member of Parliament for Nunavut, give a powerful message yesterday, saying that the lack of housing and the lack of action by the government in developing affordable housing in our most marginalized communities are keeping some of our most marginalized indigenous women and families in very dangerous situations.
The government has had eight years to follow through with it. Why should we wait and see, and trust that it will do it now? It has been eight years, and the government has done nothing.
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- May/2/23 5:24:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I find that rather brutal. We are five years into a 10-year strategy. In my speech, I talked about how we are meeting different objectives.
I would like continue my answer to that question by continuing my answer from before. We have increased the funding available through the CMHC. We need capital to build housing. When we are talking about social housing and affordable housing, that capital needs to come from public funding, which we all share so we can help each other equally.
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- May/2/23 5:24:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this day has not been easy. All day long, the Liberals have been playing us the same tune about how things are not so bad and the situation is not so dramatic.
We do not agree with the Conservatives' motion, but at least they brought this debate to the House today. I thank them for it because it is truly an important debate.
I would like to set the record straight on the situation in Quebec. A CMHC economist I talked to recently said that we need to build 1.1 million housing units in the next 10 years. The private sector will build 500,000 that the government will not need to get involved with. To safeguard affordability and allow people to have access to housing they can afford, the governments need to step up directly or indirectly to build 600,000 housing units. It is believed that in the past five years, under the great strategy, 115,000 units were built.
When will the government really get to work for this society's less fortunate?
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- May/2/23 5:37:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Conservative motion accuses cities of being gatekeepers that are blocking construction. It is absolutely ridiculous.
Part of the collateral damage of the federal government's withdrawal from housing in 1993 is that we have seen the emergence of something called the financialization of housing, in other words, big national or international conglomerates owning large apartment buildings. This is problematic.
According to one study, in 1996, just a few years after the federal government withdrew from housing, the rate was 0%. The ownership of large apartment buildings by big corporations did not exist. As we know, these groups are not interested in the right to housing. They are only interested in making a profit.
The same study noted that, by 2021, 22% of the rental stock in Canada was owned by large groups. This poses a serious problem in terms of affordability and accessibility.
Can my colleague suggest any solutions to this major housing problem in Canada?
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- May/2/23 7:45:28 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, one of the criticisms the NDP is talking about is the lack of funding for housing. It is $4 billion over seven years when we know there is a huge housing crisis. My hon. colleague from Nunavut has spoken many times about how women are forced to live in violence because they have nowhere else to go.
I am wondering if my colleague would agree that more needs to be invested in housing and that the government has really failed in the federal budget on urban and rural indigenous housing initiatives.
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