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House Hansard - 264

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 7, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 264 - Dec/7/23
Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ)
  • Dec/7/23 12:01:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. She spoke at length about the housing crisis. Last week, I travelled to France with the Canada-France Interparliamentary Association and I met a socialist senator. We talked about housing and she was surprised that Canada gives or lends money to private developers to build housing. Her jaw dropped. To her this is totally absurd. I know that my colleague spoke earlier about an acquisition fund. One of the problems with the national strategy is that too much money is being sent to private developers for housing that is not at all affordable, for example housing at $2,000 a month in Montreal. She talked about this acquisition fund and the fact that it would be important for the government to lend money to non-profit organizations to buy housing to get it out of the private market. I would like her to elaborate on how important that is.
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Context: House Hansard - 264 - Dec/7/23
Ms. Laurel Collins
  • Dec/7/23 12:02:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the question. It is a very important one. A housing acquisition fund is a key policy piece that can support housing organizations to acquire the land to provide housing. It is wild to me that the government is giving money out to private developers with no strings and no requirements to ensure affordability or to ensure that the people whose housing is being demolished to build new housing will be able to afford the new units. It is unbelievable. We also need to tackle real estate investment trusts, which are raking in record profits while renovicting tenants to maximize profits. We give them tax loopholes and incentives and do not make them pay the corporate tax. It is wild. Let us implement a housing acquisition fund. Let us take the loopholes out of our system—
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