44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2024 10:00AM
- May/2/24 6:48:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am so incredibly proud to stand here as the representative of 19 Wing and speak to this issue that profoundly matters, which is housing for the folks who serve us in the military, for those who serve us so bravely, not only in Canada, but also across the whole world.
Today, this is a concurrence motion. We could talk about the political reasons that it was used, but this one was based on a study, a motion, that just said, “Given that, rent for Canadian military personnel living on bases is increasing this April, at a time when the military is struggling to recruit and retain personnel, the committee report to the House, that the government immediately cancel all plans to increase rent on military accommodations used by the Department of National Defence.” That is the report, that one part there.
Therefore, I am here to talk about it. This is a concern for my riding. I have had a lot of time to talk to the wing commander about this issue, and I really want to thank him for his incredible work. He will only be with us until July, and I have really enjoyed working with Colonel Gagnon.
My concern is very clear. I am going to talk about 19 Wing Comox, which is on the territory of the K'ómoks First Nation, and I really appreciate the work that is happening there to build a relationship between those two organizations.
We know that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation recently let us know that the rental vacancy rate for Comox is at a low of 1.4%. Of course, when one has that kind of low rental rate, one also recognizes that we have some of the highest costs of housing in our region as well. The people who are coming to our area, who are recruited into our area and who are serving in our military, are often in a very vulnerable position. That is very concerning to me.
I think it is really important for all of us, as Canadians, to understand that they need to be close to the base, because when they are called, they cannot drive two hours from their homes to get there for what they are required to do. Especially for somebody at a more entry level, the cost of rent and of housing is becoming so burdensome. We know that a healthy rental market requires vacancy rates that are between 3% to 5%, and we know that the housing on the base is simply not enough.
We are very proud in our riding, at the base there, that we have the search and rescue training facility. It has been a huge benefit to our community. We see folks from all over the country coming to get training at that facility. They are trained by some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life, who are able to go out in dire circumstances and to save people, rescuing them from things that most of us would run away from as quickly as we possibly could. I am really happy that it is there.
They also built accommodations for the people coming to get the training, and that was very frustrating for me because I was hearing stories from so many of our serving members who could not find anywhere to live. They saw this facility built, and only people who were training were able to stay there.
Nobody begrudges that. We want to make sure that when people come and get trained, they have appropriate housing. That makes sense. However, If they do not have somewhere for the people who live there to stay, it becomes this issue of challenge that I do not think any of us want to see because everybody involved is there to train and to serve our country.
I do know, based on some conversations I have had, that some of those units have now gone permanently to people who are serving at the base, just because there is just not enough.
Again, when we ask people to serve, when they have to move from one part of the country to another part of the country, and when it costs a lot and there is nothing affordable for them to live in, we are really deterring people from providing the service that we need.
It reminds me of something I heard from the CAF ombud, Gregory Lick, at one of the national defence committees. He said to those of us who were there that how we are treating our military families is becoming an “issue of national security”. This is very concerning. This is not a direct quote, but it was similar, a paraphrase. When he said that, I thought that was great and that the whole world was going to hear it. Canada would hear that and think about what we could do differently. I just did not see the response. I have not seen it from the Liberal government, and I did not seen it, quite frankly, from the Conservative government before.
We are really underfunding the men and women who serve us. We have to make sure they have the equipment they need to do their jobs. We need to make sure they have the housing they need, and we need to support the family. When we hear things like this, it really does tell us that we need to start looking at this.
The housing needs report issued in May 2020 by the Town of Comox indicated that it was going to need 7,665 unit by 2025 to meet its needs. That is next year, and we are nowhere near that. A lot of our serving members are the people who rely on that housing.
I have written letters. I have talked to the minister about this issue. I hope he will come out and meet with me in my riding to hear the stories of our serving men and women. They need the housing and that stability. When we look at the number of people recruited into our military, we are seeing the numbers start to go down. I think part of the reason is there is not any safety of housing for people. At the beginning, military members are not making as much money, so if they are spending 60% of their income on housing, how do they fulfill their dreams in the military?
One thing I appreciate so much about representing Comox and 19 Wing is their incredible work. The folks who serve in our military, they not only do great at their work, but also do volunteer work and do great things in our community. I also want to recognize that it is the 100-year anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. That is something we should all recognize in our communities and be grateful for the amazing people who do this tremendous work.
The Comox Valley Air Force Museum has been working so hard. It has a beautiful spot right by the base, where tourists come to look at planes from different wars and different times throughout the air force's history. It is a beautiful place. A lot of people go to see it, and during the Christmas season, it is decorated with lights and is quite dynamic.
In 2001, I believe, 19 Wing received a Vampire. It is a beautiful plane that is an artifact, and it is made out of wood. It has a great history, and it is so important for the Royal Canadian Air Force. We want to make sure it is displayed with the other planes. I want to thank David Mellin, who has been such an asset for me; he has kept me updated. I thank the amazing volunteers at the Comox Valley Air Force Museum who are working so hard.
The museum is raising $1 million to build a pavilion, which is basically a display case, that would surround this wooden airplane and would allow it to be accessible and to be seen outside with the other planes that can weather the beautiful Vancouver Island rainy weather. I certainly hope the government finds it in its heart to find a bit of money to support this, to recognize the 100 years of service and to recognize 19 Wing and all the tremendous work it does.
I thank my constituents, especially those who serve our country, for the great work they do and for continuing to educate me. However, what we really need to see is money for housing. We need money for housing on bases so that people can have a safe, affordable place to call home, so when they serve our country, they have that stability. If we do not do that, we are going to see fewer people offering to do this tremendously important work.
I look forward to answering some questions.
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- May/2/24 7:34:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are debating the eighth report of the Standing Committee on National Defence, which addresses the rent increase that took place in April. This is what was reported back to the House: “Given that, rent for Canadian military personnel living on bases is increasing this April, and at a time when the military is struggling to recruit and retain personnel, the committee report to the House, that the government immediately cancel all plans to increase rent on military accommodations used by the Department of National Defence.”
This was something the committee agreed to unanimously. There was no dissent at committee over this point. All four parties at committee agreed that we should report this back to the House. We have now had a chance to debate this, and every member in this chamber will have a chance to vote on this. I am curious to see whether the Liberal support at committee will spill over to an expression of support in the chamber.
April 1 has come and gone, and Canadian Forces members did not get rent relief, so the housing crisis in the military continues, and the retention and recruitment crisis continues. There are 16,000 vacancies in the Canadian Armed Forces. There are 10,000 undertrained and undeployable personnel in the Canadian Armed Forces. We are in a crisis of retention and recruitment. This has been observed by the chief of the defence staff and everyone on down, who have testified at various points over the last year and a half at committee. This crisis of personnel is affecting Canada's national security. It is affecting our ability to be a meaningful ally to our partners in NATO and throughout the world.
There are a number of crises facing the forces, including the production and supply of ammunition. Troops are unable to train due to lack of equipment and supplies. We do not have enough trained forces and equipment to be able to deploy and accept deployments on behalf of allies. Increasing the rent of our soldiers on base at a time like this, when so many members are facing the cost of living crisis across the board for food and everything else, it is like we are asking the troops to tighten their belts a little more, among all of the other ways our troops are shortchanged of training opportunities and the things they joined the forces for. Our forces want to deploy. They want overseas and domestic deployments. They want to train. They do not want to go on an exercise and shout “bang” rather than actually fire training rounds. That is not what our troops want to do.
The statement that the committee reported to the House was amid reports that began in a committee of the Nova Scotia legislature. Erica Fleck, the director of emergency management for the Halifax Regional Municipality, testified, “we have active serving Regular Force members who are still couch surfing who were posted here in the Summer who cannot find a place to live. They are regularly now going to food banks.” She went on to say, “Again, I mentioned the food banks. People are coming to work hungry. Young soldiers are coming to work hungry, and leaders are trying to feed them as best they can, using their own money.” This is testimony in a provincial legislature. This is not an unverified news report or rumour that there are hungry or homeless troops.
At the same committee, Craig Hood, the executive director of Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command for the Royal Canadian Legion, testified, “What I came across was some startling information on serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces being posted here: living rough in tents, living out of their vehicles, couch surfing, engaging in interpersonal relationships for the purposes of securing housing - which oftentimes puts them as victims to domestic violence.”
This happened in December 2023, when this explosive testimony occurred in the Nova Scotia legislative committee, and what was really startling was that, when asked about this in the House of Commons, in response to a question from the member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman to address these allegations and to ask what was being done and why the government was failing our troops, this is what the minister had to say about that testimony: “Mr. Speaker, of course, the member opposite is once again badly misinformed. In fact, when this was reported in the press, the Canadian Armed Forces in Nova Scotia canvassed all of the members of the armed forces and determined that all of them were properly housed and that the reporting was false.”
The minister of defence actually said those words in the House of Commons. He dismissed the reports of the executive director of the Royal Canadian Legion for Nova Scotia and Nunavut Command and the director of emergency management of the Halifax Regional Municipality. He dismissed them and called their claims false. That is quite astonishing, and it was in no small part because of this that we really dug into the issue of housing in the military.
Fortunately, there are two Halifax-area MPs on the defence committee, and neither of them presumed to deny what was going on in their own city because they know. It is a fact that there is homelessness in the Canadian Armed Forces. There is food insecurity in the Canadian Armed Forces. This is the state of the armed forces under the government and the cost-of-living crisis faced by millions of Canadians that is being acutely felt in the Canadian Armed Forces.
We have been studying the crisis of housing on base, and we have had alarming testimony at the defence committee from ombudsman Lick:
I've heard from a member's dependent, who shared with me they had been homeless for five months. I've heard from families using food banks. I've also heard from some who are one paycheque away from not paying their rent or needing to make a hard decision between food and rent.
He continued, “While members do not expect a lot from their barracks, I was shocked to see some deteriorating single quarters on base that are not acceptable for any human in any situation.” This was from the military ombudsman. He also said, when he asks, “'Do you know someone who is at risk of being homeless or at risk of accessing a food bank?', everybody nods. Everybody knows someone.” This was his testimony at committee.
Amid all of this, we have a denial from the minister of defence that there is homelessness and food insecurity in the Canadian Armed Forces, so we have examined this quite thoroughly at committee, and we will have a report in due course with recommendations to Parliament, but we have found that it is not even just the residential housing units. It is the RHUs, the PMQs and barracks. We have heard of toilet facilities not up to standard by any means, mould on various walls and ceilings, and so on.
We have heard time and time again that it is things like this, such as the lack of access to a home, that drive people out of the Canadian Armed Forces at a time when we need our men and women so much. At a time of elevated need, we have a crisis of retention and recruitment.
In response to an Order Paper question that I had asked, we have confirmation that recruitment is not keeping up with people leaving the forces. We have 16,000 vacancies and 10,000 people undertrained, and the forces are shrinking. It is getting worse, not better.
We have seen the shortages and how the wait-lists of personnel to obtain a home are sometimes longer than the postings. When members of the CAF have to re-post from one end of the country to another, this is a trigger point. This is where military families have to decide whether they can continue in the forces or not. If personnel have to transfer from Halifax to Esquimalt, maybe they own a home in Halifax already or maybe they have access to a residential housing unit that is not terrible, that is not falling apart and that has a working toilet, and they would be going to another posting where they might be on a waiting list for five years. Then they would have to go on the market and find a place to rent or buy in an expensive place like Esquimalt.
Every place is an expensive place in Canada after nine years of the Liberal government. In nine years of the government, we have seen rents double, as an average, across the country, more than double and almost triple in some large cities. We have seen the price of housing across the country double. Interest rates are high and are being fuelled by deficits, which trigger inflation, which triggers higher interest rates. We have seen no restraint from the government. We have seen no balance and no ability to rein in or do anything about the crisis of housing and access to housing across Canada.
When it comes to our armed forces, the least the government could do is not boost up the rent on the small group of people who are fortunate enough to even have a base house, never mind the plight of forces members who are on multi-year waiting lists. There are thousands of CAF members waiting for access to base housing.
We have actually called upon the housing minister to come to committee, housing being one of the triggers that are causing people to leave the forces and presumably a factor in the difficulty of the forces to recruit. The minister has not come to committee to answer for this.
We note that the budget the Liberals just tabled contains exactly zero dollars for additional housing on base. There is zero dollars next year, too. There is $1 million the year after that, if I remember correctly. As far out as we can see, in the budget projections through to 2029, I think there is eventually a total of some $14 million for military housing. They are short thousands of units. How are they going to fix this problem without budgeting for it? The government is not even going to start to address the backlog and the shortfall in construction for base housing, not with zero dollars this year and zero dollars next year.
Under the existing funding, they are building about 20 homes a year. Let us think about that. There are thousands of people waiting for a home, and 20 homes a year are being built. They are decommissioning close to that number anyway. They are barely keeping up with the ones that have fallen apart to the point that they cannot even be used anymore. These properties, as we have seen from testimony, are pretty rough to begin with.
There is also nothing to address this issue in the defence policy update that was just tabled. In fact, it is a misnomer to even call it a defence policy update. It is full of exploring options and reaffirming existing policies. There is literally nothing concrete that is new policy, unless it was formerly the policy not to consider options.
This is assuming the Liberals were ever going to consider options to replace our submarines. undertake and see through NORAD modernization, or build and procure any of the kit we need. Unless it was the Liberals' policy not to consider options before, a new policy of considering options is hardly a policy.
Taking it back to housing, there is nothing in there respecting housing. This seems to be such a small thing. I have heard the Liberals ask, “do the Conservatives not know the rents are capped at 25% of the forces member's salary?” This is capped, so they can afford it. However, their wages are not keeping up with the rest of the cost of living increases. The military members' budgets are already stretched, so now even any increase is going to reduce the standard of living for that family.
We have heard time and again that it is all these other factors that drive people out of the forces. It is the difficulty with repostings and the way that affects families if they are established in a community. They may already have a family doctor in a community and kids in school, and the serving member's spouse has employment, and then they are told they have to be reposted across Canada. Maybe the spouse's job is not transferrable. Maybe their credentials are not recognized in another jurisdiction. Maybe they are going to be waiting five years to find a doctor in that community and, oh, by the way, they cannot afford a home there. They may lose the base housing if it is a family in a PMQ and would not receive the same accommodation in the new post. These are all factors that affect retention and recruitment.
The government has a crisis of retention and recruitment. The forces are, in the words of the defence minister, in a death spiral of crises of retention and recruitment. Why not do the easiest thing that the Liberals could have done, even if it is only symbolic? It is by no means suddenly meeting the 2% of GDP obligation that we have to our allies, but it would be something. It would send a signal to the troops that they do not bear the cost of the $950 million of cuts that are taking place and that the Liberals announced.
I have said enough on this for now. I will take any questions.
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- May/2/24 8:19:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out that on military bases, a lot of the housing is substandard. What I believe our party is asking for right now is upgrades, for the housing to be improved so people's quality of life is improved. It is not just military members living in these accommodations; their families are also living in them. While members are deployed overseas, there are plumbing issues, ceiling leaks and holes in the floors. There are all sorts of issues they are dealing with. It is just a recycled problem.
I know that my colleague recognizes that this affects not just the member serving but also the whole family whom they live with. When members are deployed, their concerns are increased, although their minds need to be on their job. They have a buddy system where other people's lives depend on them, and if they are not focused on the job, then people's lives are at risk because their families are at risk.
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