44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 4, 2023 02:00PM
- Oct/4/23 2:44:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on the one hand, Conservatives continue to call for cuts to spending and cuts to supports for Canadians, while at the same time they say there is not enough access to housing. They put forward a plan, a private member's bill, to tackle the problem of housing affordability. The problem is that it will not build homes fast enough, it does not reach enough cities and it creates unnecessary bureaucracy, while cutting the accelerator fund and ripping up our agreements to build more homes with cities like London and others across the country.
On this side, we are actually linking public transit dollars to housing density, working with cities to ensure their housing proposals are ambitious and addressing the bureaucracies—
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- Oct/4/23 2:52:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, over the past few years, we have always been there to invest with Quebec in housing.
We will continue to do so because the federal government has a role to play to ensure that affordable apartments and homes are built across the country, including in Quebec. I know that the Minister of Housing is currently working in collaboration with his counterpart in Quebec on a plan that works for Quebec, which will allow more housing to be built more quickly.
Housing is the responsibility of every level of government. We encourage them to address this issue urgently and in partnership.
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- Oct/4/23 2:56:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is the one who has been obstructing that promise for the last eight years since he made it. During that eight-year period, the average rent has doubled, mortgage payments have doubled and even down payments have doubled. It has been double trouble. After doubling the cost, he created a $4-billion so-called accelerator to build homes.
How many homes have been completed?
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- Oct/4/23 2:56:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, following a request from the Minister of Housing to scale up its ambition, Vaughan's city council passed a bold housing resolution to unlock even more affordable family-sized homes. That is a direct result of the housing accelerator fund.
This is a concrete example of how the federal government can lead and ensure more affordable housing options so our seniors, students and families can grow in their communities. We look forward to more municipalities joining us to ensure that all Canadians have a safe and affordable place to call home.
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- Oct/4/23 2:58:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition's housing plan consists of wagging a finger at municipalities and saying they better build more homes or else. We have a better approach than that. We actually work with municipalities to build more homes, and we are seeing the results of that housing plan.
Recently, alongside British Columbia and the City of Vancouver, the member for Vancouver Centre announced the groundbreaking of the construction of 154 new affordable housing units close to transit in the heart of Davie Village. This will also house QMUNITY, a non-profit organization providing safe and secure services for individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS.
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- Oct/4/23 2:58:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, we cannot live in an announcement. We cannot live in a press release. We cannot live in the Prime Minister's talking points, which he is having so much trouble reading.
The Prime Minister is now presiding over a massive decline in home building. In fact, last year, Canada built fewer homes than in 1972. This year, housing starts are down 32%. By the way, to end the suspense, the number of homes that have been built by the so-called housing accelerator is zero, nothing.
When will the Prime Minister stop the talk, end the bureaucracy and finally get something built?
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- Oct/4/23 2:59:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, over the past number of years, over two million families have gotten into homes because of our strategic investments in housing, and we just added to that with the housing accelerator fund that is moving forward to remove barriers and get more housing built faster.
That is exactly what we are doing with the city of London, for example, where Mayor Morgan said, “This is the most significant housing...investment in London's history”, and where over the next three years alone we will build over 2,000 additional housing units. We know this is a challenge that we need to solve together, and that is what we are going to do in partnership with municipalities.
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- Oct/4/23 3:04:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, eight years ago, the Prime Minister promised in his 2015 platform that he would “[repurpose] all available federal lands and buildings...at low cost for affordable housing in communities where there is a pressing need”.
Can the Prime Minister tell us how many homes have resulted from repurposing these buildings and lands?
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- Oct/4/23 3:04:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in 2017, we moved forward with the national housing strategy, which was a direct response to the fact that, for 10 years, under the Conservatives, the federal government had removed itself from providing housing solutions for Canadians. Over the following years, around two million Canadians accessed new homes and new places to live because of the work of that national housing strategy, and we are continuing that work, working closely in partnership with municipalities and provinces, and doing things such as eliminating the GST on rental construction of new apartment buildings. These are things that would be accelerated if the Conservatives stopped blocking them in the House.
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- Oct/4/23 3:05:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are happy to co-operate, but we are just looking for one little detail. There are 37,000 federal buildings representing 6.2 million square metres of space. The Prime Minister promised, eight years ago, that he would repurpose some of that space to create homes. How many have been created?
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- Oct/4/23 3:05:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, like I said, our national housing strategy has supported in the delivery of homes for close to two million Canadian families. We are going to continue to do the work necessary, working with partners in municipalities and provinces on delivering housing solutions.
One part of the solution is eliminating the GST on new rental construction, and that is something that the Conservatives could support right now if they were to stop obstructing and slowing down debate on the bill we put forward for Canadians.
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- Oct/4/23 3:06:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there seems to be a problem with the microphone. The Prime Minister did not hear the question.
There are 37,000 federal buildings, six million-plus square metres, that could be converted into housing, not to mention thousands of acres of federal land. The Prime Minister agreed that could be done because he promised it eight years ago. After eight years of doubling housing costs, can he tell us how many homes have been created by repurposing federal buildings and lands? I would like just the number, please.
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- Oct/4/23 3:07:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, over the past years, we have invested close to $40 billion to build and renovate close to half a million homes. That is 500,000 homes.
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- Oct/4/23 3:07:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister does not need to answer because my deputy leader did an Order Paper question and asked the government to tell us how many homes have resulted from repurposing land and buildings of the federal government. The number is 13. It is not 1,300, or 13,000, but 13 homes. That is two homes per year. How many millennia would it take then to build the 3.5 million homes we need for Canadians?
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- Oct/4/23 3:08:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while the Leader of the Opposition continues to play rhetorical games, we are focused on building the range of solutions we are going to need to actually solve this housing crisis, which involves things such as removing GST from purpose-built rental construction; moving forward with the rental construction financing initiative, which we have been working on for a number of years now and delivering on; moving forward with the housing accelerator fund, with $4 billion for municipalities like Vaughan, London and the Lower Mainland to build new homes; and continuing to work on making the rental market safer for all Canadians. These are things we will continue to do because Canadians are counting on all of us.
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- Oct/4/23 3:23:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the MP for Vaughan—Woodbridge for his hard work and his leadership. We are seeing the work of the housing accelerator fund in action. Yesterday, following a request from the Minister of Housing, Vaughan city council passed a bold housing resolution to unlock more affordable family-sized homes. We are excited to share that their plan has now been approved.
While the Leader of the Opposition's plan is to cut the accelerator fund, destroying the momentum we have built with cities like London and now Vaughan, we are going to continue to work to build more homes faster now.
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