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 2:26:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if the leader of the official opposition were actually taking the housing crisis seriously, he would have supported our investments in that area rather than going after municipalities.
Our plan involves working with the municipalities, particularly by investing $4 billion to speed up residential construction approvals and create 100,000 new homes, by tying infrastructure investment to housing, by helping Canadians save money to buy their first home, by providing support for low-income renters and by converting surplus federal lands to affordable housing.
We will continue to be there to help with housing.
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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 2:27:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have one of the strongest recoveries after the pandemic of all our peer countries, including seeing the creation of 900,000 new jobs across the country since before the pandemic.
Our investments in supporting Canadians have made a real difference and have created growth in the economy. At the same time, we have continued to step up to support families in the construction of new homes by working collaboratively with municipalities to improve densification, to accelerate zoning changes and permitting, and to work to build more housing.
As the Conservative leader chooses to pick fights with municipalities, we are going to work collaboratively to get housing—
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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 2:29:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we across the House floor all recognize that Canadians are struggling with the cost of housing. The Conservative solution is to cut the programs that are supporting Canadian families, cut the programs that help municipalities invest in accelerating housing, cut the programs that help Canadians save up for a first down payment, and cut the programs that are delivering housing solutions for Canadians. We recognize there is more to do, but it does not start by cutting the existing programs that are helping Canadians.
We are going to continue to work in partnership with the municipalities and help Canadians through these difficult times.
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- Jun/21/23 2:30:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, not only would the Conservative leader cut programs that are helping Canadians in what is, yes, a difficult housing market, but he also is choosing to pick fights with municipalities when we should be working with them, as the Liberals are doing, to increase densification, to accelerate permitting, to change zoning, and to make sure we are tying infrastructure investments, like the transit investments we are making in record numbers, to concentrations of housing and increasing housing stock.
We know we need to continue to deliver more housing supply, and we are working with municipalities and provinces to do just—
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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 2:38:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the member opposite talks about what happened eight years ago because when we formed government, we realized that the previous federal government had done nothing on housing for close to 10 years. It had removed the federal government from any leadership role or partnerships around housing, which is part of why we have faced real challenges over the past decade in responding to the growth and needs of housing across this country. It is why we also put into place in 2017 a national housing strategy that has led millions of Canadians to get into new residences and refurbished homes across the country. It is why we have continued to invest and step up—
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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 2:42:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the $4-billion housing accelerator fund was actually a corner piece of our last election campaign, but apparently the current leader of the official opposition was too busy sharpening his knives to pay attention to our platform in the last election. We have demonstrated a level of commitment and focus on delivering for Canadians, while he continues to propose cuts.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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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 2:55:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I understand how much more there is to do, but to dismiss $4 billion in housing investments for indigenous people as platitudes is not doing justice to the incredible indigenous leaders who are working across the country to deliver for their citizens, in partnership with the federal government. It dismisses the hard work indigenous leaders are doing to create more housing, more safe spaces, and more shelters, with $100 million to create 22 new indigenous shelters and transitional homes. Those are not platitudes.
We are working seriously, and we look forward to continuing to work with all members in the House on reconciliation.
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- Jun/21/23 3:17:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in Edmonton, 58% of those currently houseless identify as indigenous. Under the Liberal government, indigenous people are now 11 times more likely to use a shelter or live in inadequate homes than non-indigenous people.
The New Democrats have been calling on the government to address the housing crisis that first nations, Inuit and Métis communities have had to deal with. When will the Liberal government finally start to invest properly in a “for indigenous, by indigenous” housing strategy so that everyone can live with safety and dignity?
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- Jun/21/23 3:18:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the answer to the question of “when” is in budget 2023. That is exactly what we did. We committed to working with indigenous peoples to co-develop an urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy. Budget 2023 includes an additional investment of $4 billion in this indigenous housing strategy, on top of the $6.7 billion since 2015.
Housing remains a top priority as part of reconciliation. We will continue to work with partners on this right.
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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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- Jun/21/23 6:04:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member and I are neighbours; we share a border. Today in our local newspaper, one of the headlines said that rents are unaffordable for 40% of Coquitlam renters. While the Conservatives continue to try to deny children dental care, the NDP is working on solutions to get people in homes and stay in homes.
One thing that is happening in B.C. is a housing acquisition fund. The B.C. government has put forward a housing acquisition fund that would allow the province to work with not-for-profits and co-op housing to maintain housing in our communities. I wonder if the member can talk about whether the federal government is going to come forward with a housing acquisition fund, as has been requested over and over again by the member for Vancouver East.
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- Jun/21/23 6:05:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to start by thanking the member for her petition today. It is an issue that I have spent a lot of time on as well. I expect our issues are similar because we are neighbours. I also want to thank her for bringing up investments in housing.
I had an opportunity to meet with mayors and councillors from across British Columbia at the UBCM Housing Summit, where we were all working together to find solutions to make rents and housing more affordable. Part of the discussion was about reviewing what the federal government has done. We have to remember that the federal government had been essentially out of housing for almost 30 years. That was until we created the national housing strategy, an investment of over $80 billion going to a number of different things. That particular summit gave me the opportunity to review how that money has been invested. Some 39% of it that has been invested in projects across the country and 61% is still unallocated.
The investments in British Columbia on their own in the last six years already amount to more funding than the B.C. government has suggested it will put forward over the next 10 years, and we are continuing to invest on top of that. B.C. is a good partner. B.C. municipalities are a good partner. However, we can only get affordable housing if the federal government, the provincial governments, the municipal governments and indigenous governments all work together, and that is exactly what I propose we all do.
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