Government Orders
Mr. Chair, our focus has of course been on making sure we work with our friends and allies to help everyone affected by this conflict. I share the concerns of my colleague with respect to Hamas and its actions. We were all horrified by the terrorist attacks that Hamas launched against Israeli civilians in the south of Israel. I share the concerns of my colleague with respect to anyone, any entity …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I absolutely agree with my colleague. We should be united around the principle that every human life is precious. We have to condemn terrorism in all its forms. We have to make sure that we are always calling for the respect of international humanitarian law, and we have to stand up for the rights of civilians to be protected in conflict. That is what we stand for and that is something …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I would like to take this opportunity, as a member of the Black Canadian community, to really congratulate you for making history as Canada's first Black Canadian Speaker. I want to thank the member for his advocacy on a really important issue. Pakistan has faced tremendous challenges with some of the most devastating floods of the region. While it rebuilds, it has als…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Scarborough—Agincourt for her strong advocacy on this issue. We have been following, as a government, the deteriorating situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. This is a situation that also impacts Armenian Canadians. Earlier this morning, I announced that Canada is providing $2.5 million to the Red Cross to provide food, emergency health care, protection se…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, at what point will the Conservative Party actually have a real housing policy that emphasizes the importance of investing in affordable housing? At what point will it stop gatekeeping real help for Canadian renters? At what point will it stop gatekeeping rapid housing initiative investments? At what point will it include homelessness in its half-baked housing plan? Let it get serious …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, what we are doing is really delivering for Canadians. I will just read back to the hon. member what his colleagues believe. The member for Edmonton Riverbend believes that we should download responsibility for housing to provinces and territories, as does the member for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon. The member for Calgary Centre believes in not supporting density and actually opposes…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I agree with the hon. member that we need to take action to support renters. That is precisely why our government introduced the Canada housing benefit, which is delivering rent supports to tens of thousands of families right across our country. This Canada housing benefit is now live in every province and territory in Canada. In addition to that, we had a top-up to the Canada housi…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his advocacy on this important issue. Affordable housing and climate change must go hand in hand. That is why I was pleased to recently announce the launch of the $1.2-billion Canada greener affordable housing program. This initiative will help affordable housing providers serving low- and moderate-income households complete deep energy retrofits for resi…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows that rent subsidies and making sure rental rates reflect fairness are in provincial jurisdiction. However, we do believe we have a role in helping vulnerable renters. That is why we introduced the Canada housing benefit, which is helping tens of thousands of Canadian households across each province and territory in Canada. That is why we introduced a top-up to th…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I know that the NDP loves to bring up provincial jurisdiction issues. However, we do believe that the Government of Canada has a role to support renters. That is why we introduced the Canada housing benefit. As far as building more rentals is concerned, we are the government that introduced the rental construction financing initiative, which is about building more rental supply in Can…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows, or should know, that rent control is under provincial jurisdiction. However, we on this side of the House believe that the federal government has a role and should play a role in helping renters. That is why we introduced the Canada housing benefit. That is why we partnered with political parties on this side of the House to make sure that we top up the Canada h…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is denying the fact that we are the party in office that brought in the Canada housing benefit, a plan to support renters across the country that is currently helping tens of thousands of vulnerable renters. In addition to that, we have legislated an annual 1% tax on vacant non-Canadian residential real estate as well as a two-year ban on foreign investments in Canadia…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. speaker, it is really hard to take the party opposite seriously on housing. In their previous election platform, Conservatives did not even have the words “affordable housing” in their platform. Now they have released a so-called plan that does not have the word “homelessness”. There is no plan for women's housing. There is no plan for northern housing. There is no plan for rapid housing. Ther…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I disagree with the hon. member. We have gone from just over $2 billion in funding for Reaching Home, Canada's homelessness strategy, to almost $4 billion. That is a doubling of the funding going to over 5,000 different projects to help divert tens of thousands of Canadians from homelessness to permanent housing solutions, as well as transitional homes. We have also introduced the rap…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I would like to know why the party opposite does not believe the federal government should help renters.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, their plan does not include any mention of homelessness. Their plan does not really prioritize affordable housing.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, what I do know is that the Conservative Party, when in power, did nothing to help Canadian renters. We introduced the Canada housing benefit, which is helping renters.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, what we are witnessing is someone who does not have a plan for housing and someone who does not have a plan to support renters.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, why does the hon. member not believe there is a federal leadership role in housing?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, that is the party that believes in cuts. We believe in federal leadership on housing.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, it would be interesting to know how the Conservatives plan to build more rentals with less money and less investment in housing.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I believe and our government believes that we need more housing supply. They do not. They want to spend less, and they somehow expect more housing will be built in this country.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we understand the importance of being there for vulnerable renters. That is why this government introduced the Canada housing benefit, a revolutionary measure that puts money directly in the pockets of renters and moves with them when they move from one unit to another. We topped up that Canada housing benefit with a top-up to the Canada housing benefit. We will be there for renters. …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we can tell, when the personal attacks are increasing, that it is proportional to the lack of ideas that actually help Canadians. When we look at housing supply, we are the party that has enabled more Canadians to access affordable housing, as well as to access the dream of Canadian home ownership through the first-time homebuyer tax-free savings account, a 1% tax on vacant, non-Canad…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, how does the hon. member believe attacking mayors will produce more housing?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we understand that more Canadians are facing challenges with respect to rental payments. Although the regulation and rent control issues are under provincial jurisdiction, we on this side of the House believe that we should do everything we can to have the backs of renters. That means building a more affordable rental supply over the life of the national housing strategy, putting mone…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, we are committed to building more rentals in this country. They did not have a plan. We put together the rental construction financing initiative, which is about building more rental supply right across the country.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, average down payments are also regional in nature. That is my answer.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, we are protecting housing rights for Inuit in partnership with the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, as well as investments in Nunavut.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, we know that there are long-standing housing gaps in indigenous communities. We will continue to work with first nations, Inuit and Métis nation partners to co-develop and implement community-led housing strategies. Out of a number of different investments, I will just point to a few: $400 million over 10 years for Inuit-led housing and the new $4-billion commitment for the urban, rur…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, most of the numbers the leader quoted were wrong. For someone who has voted against supports for renters, supports for home buyers, supports for building supplies and supports for the most vulnerable people in Canada, it is very rich to see all these questions coming from him as if he cares about this issue.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, our population is growing because we have a robust immigration policy, but we also have a growing economy. The issues that the leader points to are issues associated with growth, with low unemployment numbers, high economic growth and high immigration. Skilled people are coming to Canada to help us grow our communities and our economy. If he is against that, he should come out and say t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, we are actually doing something about that. We are investing in measures to increase housing supply, but the member has voted against that, so he should come out and explain to Canadians why he keeps doing that. If he cares about supply, why does he block investment in more supply?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, the leader can ask all the questions he wants, but these are the facts. He does not believe in helping homebuyers. He does not believe in building more supply. He does not have a real plan on housing. He has a half-baked plan built on our real plan that was already in progress from 2017. That is the fact. We can have this debate. I am happy to compare our record to his, which is non-exi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, this is a program that delivers deeply affordable housing every day, right across the country. We are committed to continuing to invest in this program. In fact, we have brought $2.9 billion forward, from future years to this year.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I have provided that information.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, we know that rents have gone up. We are doing everything we can to support renters. In terms the average rental rates, again, there is a regional breakdown. I am happy to provide those numbers.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, at least he should explain to Canadians why he votes against measures to increase supply. He has been in this House saying that he cares about more supply and getting rid of gatekeepers, but he is the biggest gatekeeper when it comes to actually investing in measures and investments to create more supply for Canadians. He should—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, the average price of a home in Canada in 2022 was $703,000.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, we are witnessing the biggest gatekeeper in this House. He has voted against every measure to build more supply, to support homebuyers and to build affordable housing. He talks about the gatekeepers and red tape. Why did he vote against the housing accelerator fund, a $4-billion program to do precisely what the leader just mentioned, which is to help municipalities increase their capaci…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, here are the facts. He spouts numbers and he talks about housing affordability, but when it comes to—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I will do it again by saying that I have provided that information. It is regional, and I am happy to provide the regional breakdowns to the leader.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, it is a regional number depending on what part of the country one lives in.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, the average down payment on a home, again, depends on the region. Those are the numbers I have. I am happy to provide them.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Do I have the floor or not? I did not interrupt you. If you do not interrupt me—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, the Conservatives have all the questions tonight, but they have no plan on housing, and they have no help for Canadians who actually need help with housing.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, why did the Conservatives vote against supports for homebuyers?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, it does not matter because the hon. member believes we should do less on housing. Her party's leader has said that we should—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, if they care about housing affordability, why did the Conservatives vote against the first-time homebuyer incentive?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I did not interrupt the party opposite. I would appreciate it if the members did not interrupt me. I have the right to respond, as I have been asked a question, and it is becoming routine now. The fact of the matter is that when it comes to housing supply, he has voted against measures to increase housing supply. When it comes to housing affordability and the measures to help homebuyers…
Read full speech →