Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the national housing strategy has a number of important programs, including the rental construction financing initiative. It is important to assess each program based on the needs of Canadians in different parts of the housing spectrum. The particular program the hon. member mentioned actually has conditions with respect to accessibility and energy efficiency, and it has minimum affor…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows very well that no minister has or will ever interfere in the salaries and compensation of employees of an independent Crown agency. We are focused on providing affordable housing solutions for Canadians. Every single time that we have brought more federal investments to the table, the member opposite has voted against them. The Conservatives are not serious about…
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Mr. Speaker, we have been very clear on our commitment to implement a temporary ban on foreign buyers for non-recreational, residential property. The member opposite knows very well that the amendment he is referring to was ruled out of order in the committee and would not have been enforceable, even if it passed. We are committed to moving forward on this issue. If the member opposite and his par…
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Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to set the record straight. Who is not serious about housing affordability? That party is not serious about housing affordability. They voted against the foreign vacancy tax. They voted against the first-time homebuyer incentive. They voted against investments in affordable housing. They voted against the rapid housing initiative. They voted against the top-u…
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Mr. Speaker, let me make this absolutely clear. Even if one Canadian finds himself or herself on the street, it diminishes us as a society. I share the grief of the hon. member. I want to reiterate our support for investments in affordable housing. I have lost count of the number of times I have been to Winnipeg, virtually and in person, to make announcements through the rapid housing initiative, …
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Mr. Speaker, I encourage the hon. member to enable his party to actually vote for the measures we have brought in to enable affordability. The party opposite voted against the vacancy tax that we were supposed to move forward on. It voted against measures to help first-time homebuyers. It voted against measures to improve more investments in affordable housing. These are the things we are doing, a…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for her very strong advocacy on the issue of affordable housing. Recently in the member's riding, we announced $8.2 million to create 42 new, permanent, affordable housing units for seniors and women at risk of, and in fact experiencing, homelessness. This is real action. It means 42 Canadians now have the housing that they need and a safe place to call home…
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Mr. Speaker, we thank the housing council for its work, and we commit to closely examining the recommendations contained in the report that it prepared. We are the government that reintroduced federal leadership in the housing sector. We have brought in significant resources through the national housing strategy, which has grown from $40 billion to over $72 billion. The hon. member mentioned the c…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's concern and advocacy for his community. The rapid housing initiative has far exceeded its initial targets. We have delivered over 10,250 new, permanent, affordable housing units for Canada's most vulnerable individuals, including those experiencing homelessness and those who are at risk of experiencing homelessness. The member opposite knows, from his time as…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are not really serious about housing affordability because every single time we have brought a measure here to enable Canadians to be able to afford a home, they have voted against it, including the first-time homebuyers incentive and all the measures that we have brought in. They even voted against imposing a vacancy tax on foreign-owned non-resident properties. The…
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Mr. Speaker, I had technical issues and I wanted to register my vote as yea.
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Mr. Speaker, every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. Since 2015, our government has invested nearly $30 billion for affordable housing, brought in Canada's first-ever national housing strategy, and we have a plan worth over $70 billion, which has already helped over one million Canadians find the homes that they need. We have more work to do, and we will work with provinc…
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Mr. Speaker, our government is focused on making sure that every Canadian has a safe and affordable place to call home. Since 2015, we have invested over $30 billion, introduced the national housing strategy and worked closely with provinces, territories, municipalities and the non-profit and private sectors to ensure that more affordable housing and more supply of housing is there for Canadians. …
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives face a leadership problem on this issue. They have never spoken about affordable housing. They did not invest adequately in all their time in office. In their election campaign platform, the words “affordable housing” did not show up, neither did they show up in their opposition house motion. We have invested more than any other government. We brought the national ho…
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Mr. Speaker, what is remarkable is the astronomical gap between the Conservatives' rhetoric and their voting record. They voted against every single measure to build more affordable housing, to put more money in the pockets of Canadian renters to help them pay their rent, to build more housing for the most vulnerable and, yes, to allow more young Canadians to access their dream of home ownership t…
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Mr. Speaker, every time we have brought a measure into the House to help Canadians through programs like the Canada housing benefit to help people with rent, the first-time homebuyer incentive, the rapid housing initiative and many other housing programs as part of the national housing strategy, every single time the Conservatives have voted against those measures, yet they stand here today preten…
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Mr. Speaker, since we came into government, we have invested almost $30 billion in affordable housing measures. My hon. friend talks about help for Canadians. Why did Conservatives vote against the Canada housing benefit, which is delivering real money into the pockets of Canadians to help them with rent? Why did they vote against the first-time homebuyer incentive, which is about making sure that…
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Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to respond to that important question. This is the change we implemented: We brought federal leadership back into the housing sector. We brought in the national housing strategy. We brought in the first-time homebuyer incentive. We brought in the rapid housing initiative. We brought in the co-investment fund. We brought in the greening homes initiative. On al…
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Mr. Speaker, this is a party that has abandoned housing investments. They downloaded investments in affordable housing to the provinces and municipalities. They did not mention affordable housing in their platform, nor in their opposition House motion. They have absolutely no credibility on this issue. We are the party that introduced a national housing strategy. We introduced the first-time home …
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Mr. Speaker, every Canadian deserves a safe, affordable place to call home. We are investing more than ever in affordable housing, we are investing more than ever to eliminate chronic homelessness in Canada, and we are also enabling more Canadians than ever before to access their dream of home ownership through the first-time homebuyer incentive. We also seek to bring in enhancements to the first-…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Mississauga—Malton for his advocacy on affordable housing. I want to welcome the opportunity to remind those spreading misinformation that our government is not considering charging capital gains or surtaxes on primary residences. Any suggestion otherwise, including from the Conservative Party, is absolutely false. While they continue to make up claims, …
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Mr. Speaker, this gives me another opportunity to once again state categorically that our government is not considering charging capital gains or surtaxes on primary residences. We have said this time and time again in the House of Commons and in the public sphere. While the party opposite continues to engage in misinformation, we are busy being focused on the work of ensuring that each and every …
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be part of a government that has brought federal leadership back into the housing sector. Since coming into office, we have invested over $27 billion; brought in the national housing strategy; and brought in measures to help Canadians with housing supply, access to affordable housing, rent supports and so on. When the Conservatives had the opportunity to do the right thi…
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Mr. Speaker, we as a government have always stood up for the rights of the LGBTQ2 community domestically and abroad. We always consult with the community on ways to increase the capacity of community organizations, including in the LGBTQ2 community, to serve more Canadians and to serve fellow community members.
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Mr. Speaker, Islamophobia is real and a troubling fact. That is why earlier this past summer we held a national summit on Islamophobia to hear directly from community members about their lived experiences, but also taking concrete steps on how we can assist them further. I am pleased to inform the hon. member for Mississauga—Erin Mills that we will take further action, including dedicated resource…
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Mr. Speaker, the problem the Conservatives face is that before the election they had done nothing on affordable housing. They proposed no clear policy ideas. For nine years in government, they invested zero dollars in affordable housing. In fact, they downloaded affordable housing onto the provinces and municipalities. Now, when they have a chance to actually support policies that work, they do no…
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Mr. Speaker, the problem the Conservatives face is that for nine years in power, they did not really invest in affordable housing. They did not have a program like the first-time homebuyer incentive. In fact, they downloaded housing responsibility and investments in housing onto the provinces and municipalities. They did nothing to invest in the capacity of more Canadians to become homeowners, and…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for Niagara Centre for his advocacy on this important issue. Since coming into office, we have invested over $27 billion in affordable housing and have helped over a million families find the housing that they need. Despite the petty political games from the Conservative Party, we have a real housing plan that includes a new $4-billion housing accelerator …
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Mr. Speaker, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have substantially increased funding for the reaching home program to make sure that frontline organizations, including municipalities, have more flexible funding to address homelessness. We also introduced the rapid housing initiative, both its first and second round, which will result in over 9,200 new and permanent affordable housing units, to be bu…
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Mr. Speaker, every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. We are the party in government that brought federal leadership back into the housing issue by bringing in the national housing strategy. We have committed to implement a $4 billion housing accelerator fund. We will also make enhancements to the first-time home buyer incentive and put in a rent-to-own program to turn mor…
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Mr. Speaker, all Canadians deserve safe and affordable housing. The fact of the matter is that we brought federal leadership back into the housing market. Every single time we proposed more investments in affordable housing, the leader of the official opposition and his party voted against that. When we brought in measures to bring in the first-time home buyer incentive, they voted against that. E…
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Mr. Speaker, each and every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. Since 2015, we have invested over $27 billion in affordable housing and introduced Canada's very first national housing strategy. Our plan of more than $72 billion has already helped more than one million Canadians get the housing they need.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore for his strong advocacy on this important issue. Our government has been working hard to make sure that more young Canadians and more middle-class families have access to the dream of home ownership. In the throne speech, we committed to enhancing the first-time home buyer incentive and introducing an innovative and new rent-to-o…
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Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that it has been a long time since the member opposite has spoken about affordable housing. He has found it fashionable to talk about it, but here is the record. Every time we have put forward measures to help first-time home buyers access affordable housing, help the most vulnerable in our communities to access permanent housing solutions, or help women and …
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for Vancouver East for highlighting the deep and urgent levels of housing needs among indigenous peoples. As the member noted, indigenous peoples are overrepresented among the homeless population. This is the case in virtually all of Canada's major cities. I can assure the member and all Canadians that we are fully committed to co-developing an urban, ru…
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Mr. Speaker, our national housing strategy has a rural lens to it. That is why 38% of the rapid housing initiative projects are in rural and indigenous communities where the need is the greatest. We make sure that in the National Housing Council there are representatives who bring a rural lens to everything that we do through our national housing co-investment fund and other investments that we ma…
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Madam Speaker, we have shown action. The hon. member only has to look at the projects that have been approved through the first round of the rapid housing initiative. She can look at the fact that 38%, almost 40%, of all the successful projects under the rapid housing initiative went to indigenous people. The hon. member chooses to ignore the $638 million dedicated to urban, rural and northern ind…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking my colleague from Port Moody—Coquitlam for her question and for her advocacy, and I want to congratulate her on her recent election. I welcome the member's focus on affordable housing, and our government agrees with that side of the House that every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. This is an issue that should unite all of us. The…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Hochelaga for her question. I was in Quebec recently to talk to stakeholders about their housing needs. In May, I had the pleasure of joining my colleague to make an important announcement about $100 million for more than 500 affordable housing units. We will keep working to make sure every Canadian has an affordable place to call home.
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Mr. Speaker, for every challenge the hon. member mentioned, we actually have a different program in the national housing strategy to address it. On the issue of loans, that is for rental construction. We have another program called the co-investment fund that builds deeply affordable housing. On the rapid housing initiative, I am surprised the hon. member is saying the money did not get there quic…
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Mr. Speaker, in our six years in office, for every year that we have been in power, we have spent $4.5 billion investing and providing more housing for Canadians. What is the Conservative record? It is $250 million a year. Second, when we brought in the Canada housing benefit to put money directly into the pockets of Canadians so they could pay their rent, Conservatives voted against it. When we b…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Halifax West for her question and I congratulate her on her election. We know that many Canadians struggle to find a safe and affordable place to call home. That is why we are introducing an ambitious plan to make housing even more affordable. We will introduce a $4-billion housing accelerator fund, enhance the first-time homebuyer incentive and introduce a g…
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Mr. Speaker, since 2019, our government has committed close to $100 million through Canada's anti-racism strategy, including $70 million to support community organizations across Canada, addressing issues of anti-racism and multiculturalism. We are the first government in Canadian history to listen to Black Canadians when they said that they needed capacity-building funding and funding for infrast…
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Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: In our six years of being in government, we have spent $4.5 billion a year to build more housing in this country for Canadians. The Conservative record is $250 million a year. Those are the facts—
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians can see through that partisan rhetoric. The fact is that Conservatives invested zero dollars in co-ops, and they unloaded housing costs to municipalities and provinces. The reason we have a housing crisis is that they had no leadership in housing for their time in office. Here are some more facts: We brought in federal leadership in housing. We introduced the national housin…
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Mr. Speaker, every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. Since we came into office, we have helped over a million families get the housing they need, but we absolutely agree that there is more work to be done. We are committed to an indigenous-led, indigenous-owned urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy. Last week's throne speech outlined our government's conti…
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to put our record on affordable housing against the Conservatives' record any day. They spent $250 million a year for every year they were in office on affordable housing. In contrast, we have invested over $27 billion as part of the national housing strategy. We intend to move forward on a housing accelerator fund, which will work with the municipalities to create more aff…
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Mr. Speaker, it is very rich for the hon. member to talk about housing. When he was in office, his government invested just $250 million a year on affordable housing—
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Mr. Speaker, every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. Since coming to office, we have addressed the housing needs of a million Canadians. In the recent throne speech, we have introduced a $4-billion housing accelerator fund and an innovative and groundbreaking rent-to-own program. We will work to make sure that more Canadians have access to affordable housing by working wi…
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