44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 4, 2023 11:00AM
- Dec/4/23 2:20:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for the first time in 60 years, rents are rising faster than wages, according to the Bank of Montreal. That is the reality after eight years of this Prime Minister, who has doubled rents, doubled mortgage payments and doubled down payment requirements.
Will the Prime Minister finally watch my groundbreaking, hard-hitting documentary to see a common-sense plan to get rid of the red tape and taxes and build homes people can afford?
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- Dec/4/23 2:21:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a shame that the hon. member does not put as much energy into generating housing policies as he does to generating housing videos.
The reality is that when I actually look at the measures he is putting forward, including in the video, they will result in fewer homes being constructed than we are already on pace to build. He plans to put the GST back on some home construction. He plans to cut funding for cities that are trying to build more housing. He plans for Canada to get out of the homebuilding game altogether.
We will make the investments necessary to build more homes, not a strategy to cut home funding like the Conservatives would.
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- Dec/4/23 2:21:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, he clearly did not watch my common-sense documentary, which is being widely acclaimed by all. If he had, he would know the facts.
Our common-sense plan would take the GST off for apartments that are affordable, below-average cost. He wants to take it off just for $10 million penthouses. We want to take the bureaucracy out of the picture so home builders can build. He has a $4 billion fund that, according to the City of Halifax, is funding more bureaucratic gatekeepers.
Why will he not watch the documentary, follow the common-sense plan to get rid of the taxes and bureaucracy, and build more homes?
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- Dec/4/23 2:22:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is fascinating. For him, it is about how many people are going to watch his Twitter videos. For me, it is about how many people are going to have a roof over their head.
The right path forward is going to have Canada make investments in home building, not cuts to home builders. The right investment will reduce taxes on the construction of homes, not put taxes on them.
The right path forward will not repeat the mistakes of the past by cutting funding for affordable housing for 30 years, as that hon. member pledges to do. We will make the investments. We will not accept that cuts are the right approach.
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- Dec/4/23 2:23:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, here is the reality. People do not have roofs over their heads. After eight years of the Prime Minister and his housing minister of photo ops and media puff pieces, the rent has doubled, mortgage payments have doubled and down payments have doubled.
In his own home province, in Halifax, they now have 30 homeless encampments. Nine out of 10 young people say that they will never be able to afford a home. What have the Liberals done? They have created a $4 billion housing accelerator that two years later has not completed a single, solitary house.
Why will the Liberals not get rid of the bureaucracy and the taxes so we can bring homes Canadians can afford?
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- Dec/4/23 2:23:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the irony, when I take criticism about photo ops from that member, is shocking, because he continues to use his opportunities to travel around the country on the government's dime to take pictures in front of projects that our government funded.
The reality is that the fund he is talking about has secured agreements that will change the way cities are built, not just in Halifax but in Moncton, Kitchener, Kelowna, Calgary, Vaughan, Brampton, Richmond Hill, London, Hamilton, the province of Quebec, and I will continue the more time he gives me.
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- Dec/4/23 2:24:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, all those homes in all those cities that he is talking about are all open concept. They have no walls, no windows, no roofs, no basements, no kitchens, no bathrooms. Other than that, they are the best homes we could imagine, and we will have to imagine them, because after eight years, they still do not exist.
Instead of pouring billions of dollars into local government gatekeepers who block construction, why will he not follow my common-sense plan to require cities to boost housing construction by 15% a year or lose their money, unless they beat the target and get a building bonus? That is common sense.
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- Dec/4/23 2:25:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's argument falls apart when we come to understand that he ignores the good work that has been done since the national housing strategy was adopted in 2017. There are hundreds of thousands of homes that exist today that have been built or retrofitted as a direct result of government supports that have put them in place.
When we actually look at what the hon. member's policy would do, it would raise taxes on middle-class home construction. It would cut funding to cities that desperately need the infrastructure so they can build more homes. He would remove support for affordable housing altogether, which is a cardinal sin we cannot repeat after a 30-year history when we should have learned those lessons.
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- Dec/4/23 2:25:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member says it is a cardinal sin.
It is time for that member to make a confession. Since 2017, when they brought in this program, housing costs have doubled. Rent has doubled. Mortgage payments have doubled. The needed down payments have all doubled.
My common-sense plan, which is in a 15-minute documentary he can watch between photo ops while he is being chauffeured around, would ensure that cities have to permit 15% more homes to keep their funding. It would take taxes off construction, including carbon taxes off of building materials. It would require CMHC bureaucrats to quickly approve financing or lose their bonuses and get fired.
This is a common-sense plan. Why will he not get working to implement it?
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- Dec/4/23 2:26:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am fond of the hon. member's soliloquies on biblical passages. I read scripture in church growing up, and if there is one lesson I took, it is that we all have a responsibility to help the vulnerable members of our community.
The reality is that we have been investing since 2017 to put money in place for supporting people who do not have a roof over their head and for building more affordable housing after 30 years of Liberal and Conservative governments not taking the issue of housing seriously. The hon. member plans to make cuts when we will make investments. I know which path will put a roof over more of my neighbours' heads.
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- Dec/4/23 2:27:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, CBC/Radio-Canada management met with the Crown corporation's employees at 2 p.m. to give them some very bad news.
Things are not going well for the media these days. More than 600 jobs are going to be cut. This announcement is almost a repetition of the Quebecor announcement in early November. It means that our culture, our sense of regional belonging and the quality of the news we receive are going to suffer.
Here is my first question: How long has the Minister of Canadian Heritage known that these job cuts were coming?
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- Dec/4/23 2:27:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me begin by saying that my thoughts are with all CBC/Radio Canada employees who are currently meeting with management. We are aware of the major crisis in the media sector caused by the dominance of digital platforms in the advertising market and rising production costs.
We cancelled the Harper government's budget cuts when we took office, reinvesting $115 million in the public broadcaster. The Conservatives want to take away Canadians' access to a public broadcaster, but we will continue to be there for CBC/Radio‑Canada.
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- Dec/4/23 2:28:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in June, Catherine Tait, the CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, had her contract extended by 18 months. It will end in January 2025. She said that gave her 18 months to combat disinformation. Cutting hundreds of jobs over the next few months really means cutting news.
Basically, Ms. Tait is not there to combat disinformation. The government extended her contract so she could cut those jobs. At least, that is the impression we are getting.
Was that the real plan when her contract was extended?
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- Dec/4/23 2:29:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would remind the House that CBC/Radio-Canada is an independent corporation that operates at arm's length from the government and must manage its administration internally. However, our government has always been there to support journalists at CBC/Radio-Canada and at all media outlets across the country.
That is why we have introduced programs to better support them. That is why we insisted that the digital giants pay their fair share here in Canada. I was pleased last week to announce that Google would contribute $100 million a year, indexed to inflation.
Now, we still need to do more to support news organizations and our public broadcaster. We will continue to do so.
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- Dec/4/23 2:29:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in any case, the Liberals do not seem to be there for Radio‑Canada. The holidays are fast approaching and people are wondering what they are going to do.
The charity Opération Père Noël reports that underprivileged children are not even asking for Christmas presents anymore; they are asking for food. The organizers say that they have never seen this before. That is what happens when CEOs are so greedy and profit-hungry that they stuff their pockets at the expense of parents who are struggling to make ends meet.
The Liberals are doing nothing about this predatory behaviour, and the Conservatives would rather protect corporate profits.
During these difficult times, why are the Liberals turning their backs on families to help big bosses?
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- Dec/4/23 2:30:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government understands that times are tough for many families in Canada. That is why our government is there to support them. Our government is there with the Canada child benefit, which helps less fortunate families and many children in the country.
As far as taxes are concerned, our government implemented taxes on financial institutions to pay for investments made during COVID‑19.
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- Dec/4/23 2:31:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the holidays are coming up, and parents are stressed about covering presents for the kids and managing the costs of a turkey dinner. Meanwhile, Canada's biggest grocery chains are making bucketloads of excess profit. While families struggle this holiday season, the Liberals are offering families a lump of coal with no solutions and just words, but the NDP is getting results. We have summoned the grocery CEOs back to testify on food prices, and Sobeys is here today.
Will the minister take this opportunity to put his foot down on unchecked price gouging that is driving up food prices?
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- Dec/4/23 2:31:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government understands that this is a challenging time for too many families across the country, and that is why we are there to support families. We are there to support them with the Canada child benefit. We are there to support them with a historic investment in early learning and child care. There are 2.3 million Canadians who have been lifted out of poverty thanks to support from our government.
We believe it is important for the biggest companies to pay their fair share. We think we need to introduce more competition into the grocery sector, and we are doing that with a historic transformation of competition law.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal-NDP government, it plans on quadrupling its carbon tax scam to crush families, farmers and first nations further. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost. He refuses to tell the senators to stand down and pass the common-sense Conservative bill, Bill C-234, which would take the tax off our farmers. Even first nations communities, more than 100, are fed up and taking the government to court over the carbon tax, saying it is disproportionate and an unfair burden to them.
When will the Prime Minister finally take the carbon tax off families, farmers and first nations?
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- Dec/4/23 2:33:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for the fourth or fifth time, I would like to remind the Conservatives that the only senators who sit in a caucus sit in their Conservative caucus, and that the Senate is independent.
I would like to raise the fact that the Conservatives have had a really troubling trend of bullying, particularly of female senators, whenever they are not getting what they want out of the Senate. That is a real problem. That is a problem for democracy, and they should reconsider how they manage their affairs on Twitter when accusing senators of not advancing legislation at their whim and whimsy.
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