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moved that Bill C-26, An Act to authorize certain payments to be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purpose of improving housing supply, be read the second time and referred to a committee.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite well knows that I have appeared before HUMA a number of times to talk about the initiatives we have, as a government, to get affordable housing going, to get Build Canada Homes up and running as a Crown corporation so that it can drive the pace in getting affordable housing built. I have been at HUMA. I have been at other committees as well to make sure we are doin…
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Mr. Speaker, the investment in housing for first nations on reserve is something the Minister of Indigenous Services is responsible for. She currently has an indigenous housing process going to build a strategy, which I will be happy to collaborate with her on. There is indigenous housing funding as well in Build Canada Homes that is focused on urban, rural and northern indigenous housing, which i…
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Mr. Speaker, well, I have a very simple question for the members opposite: Do they support working with the Government of Ontario to eliminate the HST for one year on new homes up to $1 million? This is exactly what Ontario is doing with the funding related to this housing supply bill. This is exactly what it is doing. It has committed the funding. If the members opposite support giving Ontarians …
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Mr. Speaker, I would say to the member opposite that we need to look at the Ontario example of how this funding is being used. The Ontario government has chosen to deploy it for eliminating the HST for this year to get its housing market going. Getting that housing market going by giving people a discount effectively on a new home is advancing the market. It is getting home builders back to buildi…
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Mr. Speaker, we absolutely cannot forget about the important housing needs in smaller communities. Rural Canada faces many of the same challenges in terms of affordability and housing supply. Particularly in the north, housing supply is a huge challenge. Build Canada Homes is an agency focused on making sure the supply side is boosted, but in this case, the funding would be going to the provinces …
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Mr. Speaker, I think we need to look at what is happening in the member opposite's province. Ontario has been first out of the gate, accepting this funding and deploying it to eliminate the HST, for which members opposite have been calling for months, to take action. I think both sides of the House agree we need to take action to get the housing market going in Ontario and B.C., where it has been …
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Mr. Speaker, if the members of the opposition are so insistent on debate time, why did they just vote to adjourn the House in the middle of the day on a Tuesday? It does not add up. The bill is all about focusing on delivering results for the housing market, particularly in the member opposite's province, where I live too, B.C. The housing market in metro Vancouver is extremely challenged right no…
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Mr. Speaker, I am stumped by the actions we just saw in the House from Conservatives, trying to adjourn the House for the day. They just voted to adjourn the House, but fortunately a majority of us are here to do the work and continue with the business of the House. We voted that adjournment motion down. We welcome the debate, in the case of this bill, to advance the work on housing supply. Housin…
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Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, on process, I have spoken to the urgency and simplicity of this bill in entrusting provinces and territories with taking action and deploying this funding to get housing supply scaled up in their jurisdictions. As we have seen with Ontario eliminating the HST, we already have a good example of what can be done. I think the collaboration piece is really critical her…
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Mr. Speaker, just to be clear, this debate is about the housing supply act before the House, which is about $1.7 billion that would be distributed among the provinces and territories to boost housing supply. We already have an uptake on this with the province of Ontario. It was announced a few months ago. Ontario, thanks to the federal support that is tied to the bill, would be rebating the full 1…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member. The importance of getting this done is urgent. Really, the example in Ontario is what we are working with. It shows the difference this can make on the ground for the housing market, homebuyers and home builders in Ontario, who need to get going on building more supply. That is the result we are seeing already in Ontario. We met with developers over the last f…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-26 would be one tool in a large tool box that we need to activate to get the housing market turned around here in Canada, to get more affordable housing built, to make sure we have a healthy housing market and to make sure the homebuilding industry is innovating and advancing to make housing more affordable. This would be one tool in collaboration with the provinces and territo…
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Mr. Speaker, again, I am a bit surprised to hear this commentary from the members opposite. We are in a housing crisis. We need to move urgently to solve this, to fix this. We need to work with our provinces and territories to do that. We rely on their leadership as well. It is a simple question: Does she support investing $1.7 billion, boosting housing supply with provinces and territories? The m…
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Mr. Speaker, in relation to the consideration of Government Business No. 11, I move: That debate be not further adjourned.
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Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to our predecessors here in the House, there is about 40 years of history of the Government of Canada's neglecting to invest enough in affordable housing. That is what has created the housing crisis today. It has been built up over decades by governments of all stripes. There have been lots of challenges from the local, provincial and territorial levels in not exp…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said in my remarks, we are in an affordable housing crisis across Canada. Canadians expect us to take action and deliver in every way possible. For the last two days, Conservatives have been moving motions to shut down this House early and to send us home for the summer, with hours of work left to do and hours of debate left on important legislation like this that would deliver a…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure the members that the Canada Infrastructure Bank and the infrastructure investments we make as a country follow the Canada Labour Code.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for those concerns. We have to get more supportive and transitional housing built, in particular for our most vulnerable Canadians. That is a big focus of Build Canada Homes. We want to see this funding expedite housing like that, and we need to not only do what Ontario is doing with the HST, but focus on the most affordable housing, first and foremost. We will be d…
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Mr. Speaker, I was surprised to see the member and members on the other side of the House oppose the Build Canada Homes act at third reading yesterday. This is an agency that will be 100% focused on delivering affordable housing in Canada. We have never had that before. With respect to the rationale, as the housing minister, I will be responsible for the Crown corporation, as I am for the special …
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moved: That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, Bill C-26, An Act to authorize certain payments to be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purpose of improving housing supply, be disposed of as follows: (a) the bill be ordered for consideration at the second reading stage immediately after the adoption of this order; (b) when the House begins debate at …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Peterborough for her great work in the community. Yesterday was a great day for affordable housing. Despite the opposition of members opposite, who are against affordable housing, the government passed the Build Canada Homes act here in the House. This brings us one step closer to getting affordable housing built. Build Canada Homes will become a Crown corporati…
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Mr. Speaker, we have been very transparent in all of our housing funding allocations and our partnerships. In particular with Quebec, we have an unprecedented partnership on housing through Build Canada Homes. We are contributing funding from the federal level in partnership and at a collaboration table with Quebec to get affordable housing built, including supportive and transitional housing, whi…
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Mr. Speaker, having served for a decade at the local government level in both the city of Vancouver and the metro Vancouver regional government, I am obviously very familiar with the challenges faced not only on the housing front, but also in the relationships with the provinces and territories and the federal government. Historically, it has been very difficult for cities to work with other level…
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to clarify to the member opposite that the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report related to Build Canada Homes was very much focused on Build Canada Homes, not on all of the tools that government has to get housing built, most of which reside within the national housing strategy and related programs. Build Canada Homes is at far beyond the number stated, with probably trip…
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Mr. Speaker, as a British Columbian like the member opposite, I will say that people in B.C. are optimistic about our future, like we are on this side of the House. We see major projects coming to B.C. that are going to boost our economy in B.C. We see rents coming down. We see affordability coming back to the table. We see benefits to British Columbians that the other side of the House has oppose…
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Mr. Speaker, thanks to Build Canada Homes, we are putting in place new tools to accelerate housing construction, leverage public land and support innovative constructive methods. Today, the House has the opportunity to support the bill on Build Canada Homes, and I encourage all members to vote in favour of this important measure to help us build more affordable housing in communities across Canada…
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Madam Speaker, certainly, indigenous housing is a really important component of what Build Canada Homes is delivering and will continue to deliver. The floor for investment in indigenous housing in Build Canada Homes is 10% of the capital there for affordable housing. There are many proposals coming in from indigenous home builders. We look forward to seeing Build Canada Homes supporting projects.…
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Madam Speaker, the target is to build as much affordable housing as possible with the capital that is being provided here by the Government of Canada. There is an array of partnerships and collaborations now. There are different levels of affordability, as the member knows as a former mayor. There are projects that have deeply affordable supportive and transitional housing. Those require more inve…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member's concern around softwood. We see enormous opportunity with Build Canada Homes to focus on building with Canadian wood. That would benefit our industries from B.C. to Quebec and New Brunswick, provinces that rely heavily on softwood and forestry. We have real opportunities to scale up the value-added industry and make sure we are protecting jobs with softwood…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his leadership in New Brunswick. The province of New Brunswick certainly has been an early adopter of manufacturing and modern methods of construction. There are many companies now set up in New Brunswick producing homes or components of homes.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her leadership on behalf of New Brunswick. Like the members of Parliament from New Brunswick, we are very encouraging of Build Canada Homes and New Brunswick partnering to maximize the opportunity to build affordable housing across New Brunswick. The Government of New Brunswick has been a leader, as the member said, in being one of the first provinces to step …
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Madam Speaker, we have seen enormous uptake among the non-profit or community housing builders. I think a majority of the proposals coming into Build Canada Homes are from the community building sector and non-profits partnering with the private sector, which will do a lot of the construction and building. Those homes will be effectively operated by the non-profit sector, because they are affordab…
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Madam Speaker, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, CMHC, will continue to focus on the market side of the housing continuum, and that is from rental housing to the mortgage insurance products it has provided for generations. It can specialize in that, and Build Canada Homes can specialize in affordable housing. We think it is important to have this separation between the two. They are ver…
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Madam Speaker, as the member said, we are not building affordable homes fast enough. That is why we need to have Build Canada Homes as a Crown corporation, with all of the tools, financial instruments and accountability to make sure we can build faster from the federal side. We need to have these partnerships in place. We need to make it easier for the private sector to build. We need to make sure…
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Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, we are in a housing crisis in Canada. Affordability is a challenge for too many Canadians: finding an affordable place to live, finding a place to live at all for those who are at risk or are homeless currently. We need to take action here. This is a dedicated agency for affordable housing, for non-market housing, the supply of which is short in Canada compared to …
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Madam Speaker, costs do vary significantly across the country, certainly in the member opposite's riding and in the territories. The good news is that we have agreements now with Quebec to build, with Build Canada Homes, hundreds and hundreds of homes throughout Quebec in partnership with Quebec. As well, there are examples in Nunavut: 750 homes with the territorial Government of Nunavut and with …
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Madam Speaker, to the point of collaboration, we have seen fantastic uptake from provinces and territories. I mentioned Quebec moments ago and Nunavut. We have a partnership with B.C. to build 1,100 new affordable homes and 700 of those are supportive and transitional homes for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are in partnership with Build Canad…
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moved: That in relation to Bill C-20, an act respecting the establishment of Build Canada Homes, not more than five further hours shall be allotted to the consideration at the third reading stage of the said bill; and That, at the expiry of the five hours provided for consideration at the third reading stage of the said bill, any proceedings before the House shall be interrupted, if required for t…
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Madam Speaker, we see great leadership from New Brunswick, not only with respect to the 1,500 homes that are now in the works, between Build Canada Homes and New Brunswick, but also on the manufacturing side. It is one of the leading provinces in manufacturing homes and components of buildings and homes. That is where we see the future. Certainly, New Brunswick can produce for other Atlantic provi…
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Madam Speaker, the housing crisis has been decades in the making. It goes back to the federal government not taking enough action to build affordable housing and non-market housing. It goes back at least to the nineties, and arguably before that. Governments of all stripes take responsibility; governments at all levels or orders across Canada as well. Certainly, there are challenges at the local l…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member opposite for his questions and his concerns. Build Canada Homes will be the federal government agency to deliver affordable housing. CMHC will focus on market housing. There will be two agencies right now, CMHC on the market side and Build Canada Homes on the non-market side, that will be focused on housing. The Canada Lands Company, which has been involved in hou…
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Madam Speaker, there are challenging costs related to shipping anything to remote regions of Canada, and that is factored into the cost. Build Canada Homes has to factor that in when it is putting together these partnerships with provinces and territories, or with community builders in various regions around the country. The benefit of shipping manufactured components or volumetric homes is that i…
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Madam Speaker, in the spring economic update there was a signal of the opportunity to work on the national model codes, the building codes for Canada, with the National Research Council, which is under the Minister of Industry. We have big opportunities across the country to ensure that building codes are more harmonized with provinces, territories and, in some cases, cities that control their own…
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Madam Speaker, I would ask the member to walk across the floor. I would be happy for him to come over and talk. We are here in Ottawa all the time. If he wants to be more bureaucratic and send emails, there is that, but I am here. I am here to talk about this. We are here to get housing built. That is the goal. I have certainly been approached and had conversations with many members on both sides …
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Mr. Speaker, we are making unprecedented investments in Canada's community infrastructure: $51 billion in the build communities strong fund, which is going into our communities for community centres, for housing-enabling infrastructure and for public transit. These are unprecedented investments to make Canada more affordable and to get jobs on the ground across Canada for our young people, with 10…
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Mr. Speaker, we are seeing rents come down across Canada right now. We are seeing 20 straight months of rents declining, which is a positive trend. We are investing in the affordable housing that Canada needs to make sure that Canadians can afford housing. We are investing in discounts and rebates with the groceries and essentials benefit, benefits for children and food programs, across the board.…
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Mr. Speaker, it is important that we recognize the critical investments we are making in Canada's economy right now to help these same people the opposition mentions. Yesterday, we announced investments in Quebec in infrastructure, including $2.5 billion in community centres, infrastructure to build more housing and to scale up our affordable housing across the country, $1 billion to be invested t…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. Yesterday, with the Government of Quebec, we announced more than $10 billion for infrastructure and public transit. This is one of the biggest investments in the history of Quebec. We are supporting the infrastructure needed for housing construction, health care infrastructure, and public transportation projects. Now is the time to build.
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Mr. Speaker, it is shameful to continue to hear members of the opposition fearmongering about private property rights. We, on this side of the House, stand for private property rights. We stand for reconciliation. We have appealed the case alongside the B.C. government, the government of the City of Richmond and first nations. We will continue to be there for private property owners and to work fo…
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