44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 7, 2024 10:00AM
- Jun/7/24 11:50:46 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, it is more expensive to rent in Canada than ever. The top two most expensive places to rent are in my home province of British Columbia: Vancouver is number one, and Burnaby is number two.
In Vancouver, it now costs over $2,600 to rent a one bedroom or a staggering $3,600 for a two bedroom. Canadians' quality of life continues to drop. Food bank usage is at record highs, and tent encampments are growing. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
When will the Prime Minister build homes, not bureaucracy?
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- Jun/7/24 11:51:23 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member mentions housing, mentions affordability and mentions getting people off the streets. We share those interests. Unfortunately, her voting record shows something entirely different. She should go to 651 Cambridge Avenue, in her riding of Kelowna, to see a project funded by the government, which she voted against, unfortunately. She talks about encampments. The Conservatives do not want to deal with encampments. They have nothing in their housing plan, so-called, to deal with homelessness.
The member talks about building more. The Conservatives want to apply a tax on home builders. They do not want to apply any measure to the housing crisis. It is not a serious party. It is all slogans.
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- Jun/7/24 11:52:04 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, housing starts are down, and under the NDP-Liberal government, the housing crisis continues to get worse. On the Liberals meeting their housing plan numbers, construction experts at committee have been saying that there is “not a chance” and that they are not attainable. Also, according to a new Rentals.ca monthly rent report, asking prices for rent rose by 9.3% compared to this time last year. After nine years, rents have doubled.
The Prime Minister has spent billions, but rent prices keep increasing, and building keeps decreasing. How can the Prime Minister spend so much and achieve so little?
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- Jun/7/24 11:52:44 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member ought to know, again, that in order to deal with the housing crisis in this country, we do need to see another 3.87 million homes built in this country. That is the number of homes that need to be built to address the housing crisis.
It is incumbent on the federal government, provincial governments and municipal governments to put in place measures to address that crisis. If the member is serious, then she and her party will support the government in the measures that we are responsible for, waiving GST on purpose-built rentals, putting in place missing middle housing measures and working with municipalities to make that happen. The Conservatives are opposed to it every single time.
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- Jun/7/24 11:53:26 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development we welcomed the CEOs of the five major oil companies.
They were despicable. They do not care about increased emissions in the oil sector. They all defended their record profits of $38 billion since 2020, money made from pollution. Despite their bulging pockets, they are seeking even more public money. These companies do not deserve a penny of the $83 billion in tax giveaways that the federal government is offering them over 10 years.
Will the government cut the funding and reinvest in climate change adaptation?
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- Jun/7/24 11:54:03 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the work of my colleague at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development and in the House of Commons.
We are the only G20 country to have eliminated subsidies for oil and gas companies, two years ahead of schedule no less. This week, we announced $530 million in funding with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in order to work with our communities across the country on fighting climate change.
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- Jun/7/24 11:54:41 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while Ottawa is giving oil companies $83 billion, those who are bearing the brunt of climate change are still waiting for compensation.
There is nothing for farmers whose crops were destroyed last year by natural disasters. Baie‑Saint‑Paul is still waiting to be compensated for last year's floods, despite my colleague from Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix's superhuman efforts. While the Weather Network is predicting another high-risk summer for natural disasters, the federal government has still not provided any compensation for last year's natural disasters.
Why is the government quick and generous with oil companies, but slow and cheap with ordinary Canadians?
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- Jun/7/24 11:55:19 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her question. Once again, I enjoy working with her.
The new funding that I just mentioned supports more than 1,400 projects to help municipalities adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Over the past two years, we have implemented a clean fuel standard, something that the Conservatives promised to do in their last election campaign. However, they changed their minds to make their leader happy.
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- Jun/7/24 11:56:01 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, most young Canadians believe they will never be able to afford a home. Under the Prime Minister, housing prices have doubled. Mortgage payments have doubled. The needed down payment has doubled. This week, Rentals.ca reported that the average rent in Canada has reached over $2,200. This is the most expensive rent we have ever seen.
Despite this, the NDP-Liberal government is failing to build the homes that Canadians need. If the Prime Minister cannot build the affordable homes that Canadians need, will he get out of the way so that Conservatives can?
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- Jun/7/24 11:56:35 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we will not let that happen.
The Conservatives have no vision on housing. They want to tax home builders. When it comes to working with municipalities to see more zoning changes, so we can see fourplexes, duplexes, triplexes, mid-rise apartments, all of these things built in communities, they do not want to support that either. Like the member for Kelowna—Lake Country, he voted against those measures.
Just yesterday, for the first time in 30 years, we saw an investment in co-op housing that will lead to more homes. However, what do the Conservatives think about co-op housing? They believe it is Soviet-style housing. They do not believe in that.
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- Jun/7/24 11:57:15 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just two days ago, the Deputy Prime Minister, in her legendary modesty, was bragging about housing. She is totally out of touch with the reality of Canadians. The housing numbers are staggering. The average rental cost has risen by almost 10% to $2,202 per month. Two-bedroom apartments have increased by 12%. It costs $2,233 to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Canada. This government excels at announcements, bureaucracy and spending, but certainly not when it comes to helping Canadians.
When will this government really take action to help Canadians after doing nothing for nine years?
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- Jun/7/24 11:57:56 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my dear colleague that when his leader was the minister responsible for housing, he built six housing units. I repeat, six housing units. The housing plan we have in place will create more than 3.8 million homes in Canada in the next few years.
On this side of the House, we are helping people pay their rent, building housing, making sure people are not left homeless, and getting those who are homeless off the streets by providing access to housing and shelters. We will continue to work for all Canadians.
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- Jun/7/24 11:58:40 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Corrections Canada has a mandate to retrain Canada's 10,000 inmates so they can find employment upon release. In the past three years, Corrections has issued 112,000 meaningless in-house vocational certificates and a grand total of 64 Red Seal certifications. Corrections has also made zero effort to engage in provincial apprenticeship programs, which could produce life-changing certified job skills, reduce recidivism and be beneficial to everyone in the community. Why this neglect?
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- Jun/7/24 11:59:13 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly share our colleague's focus on the importance of vocational training and skills upgrading for those who are serving in federal correctional facilities.
I had a chance, with my colleague, the parliamentary secretary and member for Kingston and the Islands, to visit the Joyceville Institution, in our colleague's riding, to meet people from CORCAN who are working and seeing inmates taking programs that will improve their skills training and hopefully set them up for success when they are released from those institutions. We will continue to do everything that is necessary to preserve public safety, and this is an important element of that work as well.
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- Jun/7/24 11:59:56 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, across the country, communities need new infrastructure to grow, build more homes and enable economic growth. This is especially true in the north. Investing in our communities also means investing in our airports. Northerners want reliable, safe and affordable service when it comes to air connectivity.
Could the Minister of Transport please tell us what the government is doing to ensure that the communities in the north are more connected and more livable?
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- Jun/7/24 12:00:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Yukon is not only excellent, he is also right. Investing in our communities means investing in our airports. Northern, remote and indigenous communities must have access to the air services they need and expect. This is why we invested $186 million to upgrade the infrastructure at the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport.
We have a plan to build a Canada that the next generation will be proud of. The Conservatives, well, they pretend to care about making life better for the next generation of Canadians, but they just pretend. On our side, we are doing it.
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- Jun/7/24 12:01:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General's explosive report on the NDP-Liberal green slush fund shows that personal friends of the Prime Minister voted themselves millions in taxpayer cash. With 96 cases of declared conflicts by board members, they still voted to award themselves that taxpayer cash. In another 90, they failed to disclose the conflict of interest and still then gave themselves the cash anyway.
Now, will this NDP-Liberal government release all the slush fund documents and call in the RCMP?
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- Jun/7/24 12:01:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, SDTC is an organization that has served the clean-tech sector for over 20 years. When we knew about the allegations of mismanagement, our government acted immediately. There are a number of steps over the last many months that our government has taken to get to the bottom of the issues in terms of the governance and HR practices of the organization.
I think it is important to keep in mind that this is an arm's-length organization. It operated independently of government oversight. We are now folding it into the National Research Council and installing a more robust governance framework.
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- Jun/7/24 12:02:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that member's response does not make any sense. That organization, in 2017, got a clean bill of health from the Auditor General. Then when the government took it over, it dumped the chair within three days, a record amount of time. That new board member gave $217,000 to a company she had a direct relationship with.
The question remains: Will the government then release all of the documents connected to this slush fund and call in the RCMP?
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- Jun/7/24 12:02:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate for us all, as a government and members of Parliament, to demand the highest governance standards when dealing with public funds. That is what our government has done from day one. As soon as we learned about allegations of mismanagement in this independent organization, we ordered independent reviews done, fact-finding missions.
We collaborated with the Auditor General in her review, and now we are moving forward with the recommendations that the Auditor General has made, which include folding the organization in to have better transparency, accountability and oversight.
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