44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 27, 2024 11:00AM
- May/27/24 2:16:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are experiencing pain and anxiety as rent and mortgage payments have doubled after nine years of the Prime Minister. Housing is a need, not a want, yet OSFI just made a report stating that 76% of Canadians are going to face trouble paying their mortgages. That is 34 million Canadians who have a mortgage, who live with a mortgage holder or who rent from a mortgage holder.
Trust is a powerful word. It is an experience more than a statement, and Canadians are facing anxiety and pain, and are losing trust over the Liberal Prime Minister, who cannot take care of even the basic needs: housing, low taxes and an affordable cost of living. Trust does not require billions; it requires action. To make Canada right, we need change. We need a new prime minister who is going to restore trust, build homes for Canadians, and bring it home.
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- May/27/24 2:17:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation as the member of Parliament for Cloverdale—Langley City, effective May 31. I have had no greater honour than to serve for almost seven of the past nine years here in Ottawa.
During this time, I have worked with many incredible MPs and senators across parties on numerous legislative priorities. I also worked closely with colleagues at the provincial and municipal levels of government because many issues require collaboration between all levels of government.
I am proud to see that our community south of the Fraser has grown over the past decade, but I have also gained a deeper appreciation of family. I am so grateful to my wife, Elaine, and to my children Kai, Hattie and Kalani for their love and support over the past decade as I pursued politics in Ottawa, and, of course, my condo cuties.
As my time as a member of Parliament ends, I am so thankful to everyone who supported me over these past seven years, especially my staff and volunteers, but mostly, I thank the constituents of Cloverdale—Langley City for allowing me to serve them.
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- May/27/24 2:18:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, this Prime Minister is not worth the cost of mortgages, 76% of which will require higher monthly payments in the next three years, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, which monitors Canada's banks. This comes after the Prime Minister promised that interest rates would stay low for Canadians. Against this backdrop, the Bloc Québécois is voting in favour of a $500-billion bureaucratic, inflationary and centralist budget that is causing interest rates to balloon.
Why does the Prime Minister not cap spending and reduce the waste in order to lower interest rates?
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- May/27/24 2:19:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are not really worried about Canadians who are struggling to pay their mortgage. We know that because the Conservatives refused to support our Canadian mortgage charter, which truly provides significant support for Canadians. They are against 30-year amortization for new buyers.
The only thing the Conservatives understand is cut, cut, cut.
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- May/27/24 2:20:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course the Conservatives want to cut. We want to cut taxes.
The Journal de Montréal has declared that Quebec taxpayers are tapped out. It should come as no surprise that 75% of respondents to Léger-Québecor polls said that they were not getting their money's worth. The Liberal Bloc, however, wants to raise taxes.
Why not at least accept my common-sense plan to suspend the gas tax this summer?
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- May/27/24 2:21:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the Conservatives do not have a plan. The only thing the Conservatives understand is austerity. The only thing they can do is cut, cut, cut.
They want to scrap our dental care plan, which is very popular in Quebec. They want to scrap our school food program, another plan that is very popular in Quebec. Obviously, they are not going to support child care centres, another very important plan for Quebeckers, including Quebec women.
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- May/27/24 2:21:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the cost of mortgages, 76% of which will become more expensive over the next three years, according to the federal banking regulator, OSFI. This, after the Prime Minister said rates would stay low for long. We know that his massive government deficits have driven rates up two percentage points higher than they otherwise would be, according to Scotiabank.
Will he accept my common-sense, dollar-for-dollar plan to cap spending and cut waste to bring down interest rates so Canadians can keep their homes?
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- May/27/24 2:22:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know the truth. The Conservatives do not actually care about Canadians who are struggling to pay their mortgages, and we know that because when we put forward something very concrete to support those Canadians, like the strengthened Canadian mortgage charter, they refused to support it. When we put forward a plan to help first-time homebuyers with 30-year mortgage amortizations, the Conservatives voted against it.
The fact is that the only thing the Conservatives know how to do is cut, cut, cut, and the only Canadians they care about are themselves.
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- May/27/24 2:23:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have voted against everything the Prime Minister has done to balloon the cost of living of Canadians, to increase food bank use by 50% over three years, to send one-quarter of all young people to the food bank in three months alone, one-quarter of all Canadians skipping meals because they cannot afford a home, a 38% increase in homelessness since 2019, 50 new homeless encampments in Toronto, now a total of 256 of them in the biggest city in the country.
Why is it that the more they spend, the more Canadians hurt?
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- May/27/24 2:23:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we will take no lessons from the Conservatives when it comes to supporting the most vulnerable Canadians. The fact is that when we formed government and when they left government, the poverty rate in Canada was 14.5%. It is now 9.9%. The Canada child benefit has lifted hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. The GIS helps 900,000 seniors. The only thing they know how to do is cut, cut, cut.
Tory times are hard times.
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- May/27/24 2:24:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know how to cut taxes. That is why we reduced poverty and had affordable homes nine years ago when common-sense Conservatives were in government. Since that time, housing costs have doubled. Mortgage payments have doubled. Rent has doubled. The number of homeless encampments in Canada is up by hundreds per cent. We now have one in four Canadians skipping meals because they cannot afford the cost of food.
Will the government finally stop the policies that make Canadians poor, get off the backs of the working people and let Canadians keep their homes?
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- May/27/24 2:25:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know what the Conservatives really believe and what they really do. When that leader was in government, how many homes did he actually get built? There were just six homes. We know what Conservatives do to programs that support the most vulnerable: cut, cut, cut.
We have put forward a national school food program, a dental care program and national early learning and child care. They want to cut those programs. We will not let them.
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- May/27/24 2:25:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on May 10, the immigration minister met with his counterparts. They announced a working group to address the distribution of refugee claimants.
Last Thursday, Minister Fréchette wrote to the minister again. She is getting frustrated because there has been no movement since that announcement. I would remind the minister that he said that the status quo was no longer acceptable, yet, since then, it has been nothing but the status quo. Our public services are overwhelmed; meanwhile, there is a working group that is not working.
I know they have made an announcement, but is there actually a working group? When will it meet and when will we see results?
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- May/27/24 2:26:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to inform the House that the group will be meeting over the coming week. That does not mean that there is no preparatory work being done. Obviously, a working group with ministers requires advance preparation, and that work is currently under way. I spoke to Minister Fréchette this morning.
I, too, am looking forward to some news because the status quo is unacceptable.
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- May/27/24 2:27:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, since 2017, Quebec has taken in over 50% of those seeking asylum in Canada, even though Quebec has 22% of the population. Let us also not forget that, for months, Canada's immigration minister denied something that was obvious. He denied that there was an imbalance. He even considered the concept of integration capacity suspect. When the immigration ministers met, he finally acknowledged that there were integration capacity issues. He saw the light. Only fools would say they get everything right.
Will the minister stop demonizing Quebec and trying to buy time, and will he finally ensure that asylum seekers are spread out among the provinces?
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- May/27/24 2:27:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is confusing capacity and willingness to integrate newcomers. What I said very clearly to my Quebec counterpart was that we would work together to distribute asylum seekers across the country. Ontario and Quebec have an excessive burden in terms of the number of asylum seekers relative to their population. We need the rest of the country to follow suit.
That is what we are going to do.
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- May/27/24 2:28:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is difficult to find the words to describe the horror of what is going on in Rafah. Women and children were burned alive in tents. They were told they were in a safe zone, in a refugee encampment, yet they were burned alive.
What will it take for the Liberal government to send a message to Netanyahu that what has happened is inexcusable? What will it take for the government to take actions to prevent this genocide from happening?
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- May/27/24 2:28:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, even in times of war, there are rules. The images coming out of Rafah are horrific and heartbreaking. Our position has been clear on Rafah. We have been repeating our position for weeks. Palestinian civilians do not have any safe space to go. The killing of innocent civilians is completely unacceptable, and the decisions of the International Court of Justice are binding.
The level of human suffering is catastrophic. That is why we need an immediate ceasefire.
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- May/27/24 2:29:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the images coming out of Rafah are horrifying. Women and children were burned alive.
What will it take for the government to send a clear message to Netanyahu that what he is doing is inexcusable? What will it take for the government to finally take action to prevent this genocide?
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- May/27/24 2:29:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, even in times of war, there are rules.
The images coming out of Rafah are horrific and heartbreaking. Our position on Rafah is clear, and we have been repeating it for several weeks now.
Palestinian civilians have nowhere to go. The killing of innocent civilians is completely unacceptable. The decisions of the International Court of Justice are binding. The level of civilian suffering is catastrophic.
That is why there must be an immediate ceasefire.
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