SoVote

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos (Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Lib.)

May/7/24 2:37:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to hear my colleague from Lévis talk about housing. The right answer is that the Conservative leader built six affordable housing units during his entire term as minister responsible for housing. The good news that needs to be said is that, thanks to the work of the Canadian government and its partnership, 205 affordable housing units were built in the member's own riding in recent months. That is excellent news for the member, but bad news for the her Conservative leader as the former minister responsible for housing.

97 words

Context: House Hansard - 310 - May/7/24

Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

May/7/24 5:46:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in the almost nine years that the government has been in power, we have seen that it has not reinstated co-op housing and scaled it up to the 25,000 units a year we were building in the seventies and eighties. The Conservatives built none. We were able to get the Liberals to come gradually on, with a small amount in the last budget, but we are still not seeing that built. Now we have a pile of money in housing, but they have not told us how many units they are going to build of co-op housing. We are short almost 700,000 units. One just needs to go outside to see what this looks like; there are homeless people everywhere. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives have a free market approach to an affordable housing crisis. There is nowhere in the world where the free market has solved an affordable housing problem. It is a myth and a falsity, and it will not happen. Will my colleague please tell us when the government is going to get back into non-market housing, because it is going to be required instead of these free market trinkets, and actually build some non-market housing to solve this affordable housing crisis?

214 words

Context: House Hansard - 310 - May/7/24

Mr. Tako Van Popta (Langley—Aldergrove, CPC)

May/7/24 5:51:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the budget implementation act, budget 2024. In its budget, the Liberal government makes the audacious claim that its ongoing investments are “making life more affordable for Canadians and improving access to housing.” I thought I would compare that to what is actually happening on the ground in communities across Canada and in my riding of Langley—Aldergrove. What has happened in the last nine years under the Liberal government? Instead of making life more affordable, two million Canadians are regularly using food banks, and that demand is growing. The demand is growing to the point that some food banks are starting to ration what they can give, even turning some people away. That is hardly making life more affordable. How about improving access to housing? The average house price in Canada has doubled in the last nine years. In my riding, in Langley, the Fraser Valley and part of metro Vancouver, the increases have been even more dramatic. The average price in Canada for a house nine years ago was $400,000. Today, it is double that at $800,000. When we add to that the tripling of interest rates, making mortgage payments has become very difficult for some Canadians. I was talking to someone in my community just the other day who told me that he bought a house with his brother and parents a couple of years ago. At that time, with the relatively lower interest rates, their payment was $4,000 a month. They renewed it just a little while ago. Interest rates have gone up dramatically, and their payment has doubled to $8,000 a month. So much for helping the middle class and making housing more accessible. The people in Langley, and certainly this family I talked to, say they are not looking for government handouts. They want lower interest rates so they can make their payments and eventually pay off their houses. I am speaking of one family, but I have heard this from many others. Canadians do not believe that whatever the Liberal government is trying to do is making life more affordable for Canadians or improving access to housing. It is quite the opposite.

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