44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 21, 2023 02:00PM
- Jun/21/23 2:25:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years under this Prime Minister and his anti-construction inflationary policies, the cost of housing has doubled.
In fact, we learned today that, in Quebec, the average rent increased by 19% in the past year. In some areas of the province, it went up by 44%. In British Columbia, nearly 100,000 people could be out on the streets because of rent hikes.
Will the Prime Minister finally reverse his anti-construction inflationary policies that caused this housing crisis?
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- Jun/21/23 2:27:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it now takes 25 years for the average Torontonian to save up for the average down payment on a house. It used to be that one could pay off a mortgage in 25 years; now, that is what it takes just to get a down payment, after the Prime Minister's anti-construction inflationary policies have doubled the cost of housing. He has done this with deficits that drive up interest rates and drive down salaries, and by funding bureaucracies that block home construction.
Will the Prime Minister reverse the policies that caused the housing crisis, so Canadians can put a roof overhead?
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- Jun/21/23 2:28:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister tells Canadians they have never had it so good, but in reality, housing costs have actually doubled under his leadership. In fact, they are among the worst in the world. Vancouver is now the third most overpriced market, and Toronto is the 10th. Both are worse than New York City; London, England; and even Singapore, a tiny island. In fact, the average house cost is almost double in Canada what it is in the United States, which has 10 times the people to house on a smaller land mass.
The Prime Minister's anti-construction inflationary policies are not working. Will he reverse them so that Canadians can get a roof overhead?
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- Jun/21/23 2:30:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister can say all the right things, but he does not get anything done.
I will give a perfect example. I know that the Prime Minister is trying to plagiarize my message on housing, but he cannot actually deliver on it. The reality is he brought in a $4-billion housing accelerator fund that has decelerated home building. Home building is actually down 19% versus what it was before he brought in this acceleration program.
Instead of just spending money irresponsibly, why will the Prime Minister not tie dollars to houses that are actually complete?
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- Jun/21/23 2:38:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's main criticism seems to be that the previous Conservative government did not hold enough meetings or spend enough money. What we actually delivered was affordable housing. The average house cost was $450,000 at the time. The average rent back then was about 50% of what it is today.
Now, Canada has the fewest houses per capita in the G7. We have fewer houses per capita than when the Prime Minister took office eight years ago at a time when house construction actually dropped off. Therefore, will he get out of the way, let Canadians build and let them put a roof overhead?
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- Jun/21/23 2:40:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister says that his real criticism is that our programs were not expensive enough for the taxpayers. The fact is, it is bad enough for him to fail; it is even worse for him to fail expensively and that is what he has done. He does have an $80-billion housing program that has left us with the fewest houses per capita in the G7, even though we have the most land to build on, which is fewer houses per capita than when he took office. We now have almost double the house price in Canada versus the U.S., where they have 10 times the people to house on a smaller land mass. Why does the Prime Minister not stop judging himself by how much he can spend instead of judging by how much he can get done?
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- Jun/21/23 2:41:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just because the Prime Minister makes housing more expensive to taxpayers does not excuse the fact that he has made it more expensive for homebuyers. I will give an example: He has tried to plagiarise my message on the need to get housing built by inventing a $4-billion accelerator program. Since that time, housing construction has decelerated.
This year, according to the Prime Minister's own housing agency, there will be fewer houses built than last year: 19% fewer. Why will he not actually take my policy, which is to link the number of dollars cities get to the number of houses that get completed?
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- Jun/21/23 2:44:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, here is a real plan to make housing affordable: Balance the budget to bring down inflation and interest rates on Canadians' mortgages; require that cities increase the number of permitted homes by 15% in order to get more infrastructure money and pay the money out once the houses are completed and the keys are in doors; require every federally funded transit station to have high-density housing all around it; and sell off 6,000 underutilized federal buildings to convert them into affordable housing and use the proceeds to reduce the deficit.
How is that for a plan?
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- Jun/21/23 5:34:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, when we look at the record of the Prime Minister, he has doubled the cost of housing; he has doubled the cost of rent, mortgage payments and necessary down payments. He has massively increased lineups at our local food banks. There are 1.5 million people standing outside food banks every single month. They are lined up all around street corners in cities like Toronto. We now see 100,000 British Columbians who face possible homelessness because of the increases in rent that the government's inflationary policies are helping drive.
These are new problems; eight years ago, we did not have these problems. Housing was affordable. Canadians could afford to eat. There is no excuse for this failure. We have all the natural advantages. We live next to the most lucrative economy in the world. We have the most educated people in the world. We have four coasts. We can do it.
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