SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 254

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 23, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 254 - Nov/23/23
Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ)
  • Nov/23/23 1:26:58 p.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, there was one part of my colleague's speech that I really liked. When he talked about the housing crisis, he said it is a complex issue. He is right. At some point, the government is going to need to wake up and face the facts. Those 3.5 million housing units will require hundreds of billions of dollars in investments. I am not even convinced we are going to get there. However, there is one issue the government could work on, and that is the financialization of housing. That is a significant issue. We are talking about the fact that a growing share of rental housing is being bought up by large private investors, often international ones. It is estimated that, in Montreal, less than 1% of owners own 32% of the rental housing stock. They could not care less about the right to housing. All they want to do is make money. They buy buildings with 60, 80 or 100 units. They demolish or renovate them. They renovate and double the price of the units. They have a major impact on the rise in housing prices. We absolutely have to tackle this issue. Could my colleague suggest some measures today to deal with this?
210 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Context: House Hansard - 254 - Nov/23/23
Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ)
  • Nov/23/23 1:42:22 p.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, I am always happy to talk about housing. Earlier, I asked my Conservative colleague a question about the financialization of housing and the growing number of large investment funds buying up housing in Canada. This is a huge problem. We know that, for every affordable housing unit built in Canada, we lose 10 to the private market because those units are being bought up by big investors. The Bloc Québécois wanted the economic update to include an acquisition fund to take affordable housing off the private market and keep it affordable for the long term. That is what non-profit housing organizations across Canada want, too. The goal would be to shelter the $600, $800 and $850 units that are still on the market. The government could buy them and take them off the market. Everyone agrees that this would be a solution. Does my colleague agree?
153 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border