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Mr. Chair, with all due respect, I know how this committee of the whole works. I am pointing out the hypocrisy of not helping Canadian renters and then standing here and talking about rent as if they care.
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Mr. Chair, if they care about housing affordability, why did the Conservatives vote against the first-time homebuyer incentive?
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Mr. Chair, I am happy to provide numbers. If the Leader of the Opposition wants to keep doing this for the next five hours, I am happy to do it.
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Mr. Chair, they absolutely do not care about Canadian renters because, if they did, they would not have voted against the Canada housing benefit or the top-up to the Canada housing benefit. In the member's own province of Alberta, the Canada housing benefit is helping 35,000 households. He voted against it.
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Madam Chair, she should start her advocacy within her own caucus, because this is the first time I am hearing them raise issues about homelessness. It is the first time in seven years.
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Mr. Chair, it is an honour to stand here to debate my colleagues. We know that Canadians are facing challenges in accessing their dream of home ownership. We are doing everything we can to help them get there.
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Mr. Chair, will the member opposite finally admit their plan to vote against the housing accelerator fund, which is exactly about creating more supply so that more Canadians have access to more homes through home ownership and rent, was a bad idea?
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Mr. Chair, how does the hon. member believe attacking mayors will produce more housing?
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Madam Chair, the Conservatives do not believe in the right to housing. They have no plan. All they have are gimmicks and buzzwords.
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Mr. Chair, this is an example of what can be done at the local level through investments in the national housing strategy. We were able to partner with local Legions in a number of communities, including Sault Ste. Marie, and with local indigenous governments and organizations to build deeply affordable housing, housing that not only rejuvenates local Legions, some of whose buildings are falling i…
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Mr. Chair, the hon. member should understand that federal leadership means trusting local authorities to make the decisions necessary, but also empowering them to add more supply to housing in Canada. Their approach is to attack local mayors, calling them names, denigrating them and calling them incompetent, while somehow hoping that is going to create more housing.
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Mr. Chair, we believe every Canadian has a human right to housing. We have legislated that right. They do not believe Canadians have a right to housing.
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Madam Chair, does the official opposition actually believe that Canadians have a right to a safe and affordable place to—
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Mr. Chair, this is pretty rich coming from a party that has no housing plan.
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Mr. Chair, the hon. member thinks that we are the only order of government that is responsible for encampments, that is responsible for addressing municipal issues and provincial issues. We are doing our part, as I said, from doubling from $2 billion to $4 billion in addressing homelessness. We are committed to doing our part. While encampments fall under the jurisdictions of provinces, territorie…
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Mr. Chair, average down payments are also regional in nature. That is my answer.
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Mr. Chair, we have. We have shown leadership and here is the proof. We have invested over half a billion dollars to continue doubling the annual funding for Reaching Home, which is Canada's homelessness strategy. We have gone from just over $2 billion to almost $4 billion in response to the urgent need on the ground. Our investments are paying off. We have prevented over 62,000 people from experie…
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Madam Chair, I wish the hon. member used his advocacy skills within his caucus because their so-called housing plan does not even have the word “homelessness” in it. How can we take this party seriously on homelessness when it is not even mentioned in its plan?
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Mr. Chair, I just want to correct a few things that have been asserted by the hon. member. The Auditor General looked at the Reaching Home strategy and she looked at the performance of the Reaching Home strategy mainly during the pandemic. The Auditor General did not look at the entire national housing strategy program. I just want to clear that misconception. Secondly, the hon. member seems to do…
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Mr. Chair, I am really perplexed by the logic of the hon. member. She says that our national housing strategy is not really doing anything on the ground. Contrary to that, I can report back to the hon. member that we have invested in either repairing or building 500,000 units; this has supported almost two million Canadian households. That is the impact the national housing strategy has had on thi…
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Mr. Chair, as I said, a number of factors lead to making housing more expensive and contribute to the challenges facing Canadians. One of them is financialization, but a second one is supply, and we are taking measures to deal with both.
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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…
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Mr. Chair, I have provided that information.
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Madam Chair, York Region is facing a supply shortage. We are investing in the housing accelerator fund and the hon. member voted against it. I wonder why.
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Mr. Chair, I agree with the hon. member that the financialization of housing is an issue that we have to deal with. We are committed, as a government, to making sure that housing is more affordable. We are continuing to do our part in addressing and tackling the financialization of housing. When it comes to rent control and what landlords do at the local level, of course, the provinces have a majo…
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Mr. Chair, I really appreciate this question, because it gives me an opportunity to talk about the divisiveness of the leader of the official opposition in calling the mayors, the elected officials in this country, “woke”, and denigrating them and calling them “incompetent”. We need to work with local governments, we need to work with mayors and we need to work with municipalities to increase hous…
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Mr. Chair, that is a very good question, and it points to the fundamental difference between this side of the House, our government, and the official opposition. The Conservatives do not believe that Canadians have a human right to a dignified place to call home, but we do, and the evidence is there: Whenever we bring investments to the floor of the House to invest in Canadians, they vote against …
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Madam Chair, we believe in the right to housing; they do not.
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Mr. Chair, that is absolutely correct. I found the mayor of Surrey, as well as the members of Parliament from the region of Surrey, to be very open to working with our government to meet the needs of all types of housing advocates in Surrey. Surrey has benefited greatly from the rapid housing initiative. While I was there to announce the third round of the rapid housing initiative in Surrey, I was…
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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. …
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Mr. Chair, the federal government is determined to help Quebeckers find safe and affordable housing. Since 2015, we have invested more than $6.5 billion in Quebec to help more than 45,000 families and individuals secure the housing they needed. The bilateral agreement between the governments of Canada and Quebec will result in a combined investment of an additional $3.7 billion over 10 years to im…
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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.
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Mr. Chair, on this side of the House we believe in the right to housing, and they do not. The leader is two years behind schedule. We introduced the concept of combining infrastructure investments for housing two years prior. We introduced the housing accelerator fund, a program to do exactly what he is claiming he will do in the future, which is to connect infrastructure and also make sure that l…
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Mr. Chair, I know Covenant House; It does good work. The member opposite as well as his party voted against more funding for organizations serving the homeless community.
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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…
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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.
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Mr. Chair, different prices can be seen in different parts of the country, so I would like the leader of the official opposition to recognize that fact.
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Mr. Chair, it would be interesting to know how the Conservatives plan to build more rentals with less money and less investment in housing.
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Mr. Chair, could the hon. member tell us, with his cuts to housing, which programs they would cut from the national housing strategy? They believe in cutting their—
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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?
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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—
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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.
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Madam Chair, I actually want to know why the Conservatives voted against the Canada housing benefit, which is helping renters directly.
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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.
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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…
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Mr. Chair, we know there is a challenge with the rising costs of housing. That is why we have implemented a number of policies to enable Canadians to access their dream of home ownership.
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Mr. Chair, if they had their way, that organization would not even get any federal funding, because when they were in office, they did not believe the federal government had any role in investing in affordable housing.
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Mr. Chair, can the hon. member tell us how he votes against the housing accelerator fund, but expects more housing supply, including rental—
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Madam Chair, we have prevented 62,000 people from joining homelessness and we have diverted 32,000 people away from homelessness into permanent housing. That is our track record and we will continue to invest more to prevent and solve homelessness in Canada.
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