Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government is taking action on delivering affordability. We have done that with a tax cut for 22 million Canadians. We have done that with a cut to the GST for first-time homebuyers. We will continue to do that with actions throughout this year, and we expect the members opposite to support this. This is a new voice. Suddenly, there is concern from the Conservatives, who never vot…
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Mr. Speaker, I am, frankly, not surprised to hear the confusion on the other side of the House when they put the words “affordable” and “housing” together. We are taking action on it. Though the federal government does not control the price of housing, we want to see the overall cost of housing come down. That is why we are investing in local partnerships with cities across Canada to bring develop…
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Mr. Speaker, the government is committed to taking action on housing. That is why we have rolled out the GST break for first-time homebuyers, saving them $50,000 on up to a $1-million purchase. That is why we have rolled out a tax break for 22 million Canadians to help them afford housing. We are taking action, and we will continue to take action at a pace that I hope the members opposite will sup…
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Mr. Speaker, the government has been very clear about our plan for housing, the most ambitious plan for housing in Canadian history, and that is “build Canada homes”. It is moving forward on concrete actions that will save people money. We are going to take action for multi-unit residential buildings that we hope the members opposite will support in the fall to increase rental supply. We are going…
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Madam Speaker, as I have said numerous times in this House, there is a real focus on this side of the House on ensuring that young Canadians have an opportunity for home ownership. That is why we brought in the GST break for first-time homebuyers, $50,000 for homes up to $1 million, and a GST break up to $1.5 million in the markets that are higher priced. We are delivering a break for first-time h…
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Madam Speaker, this new government is focused on rolling out the most ambitious affordable housing plan that Canada has ever seen. We expect the members opposite to support this. They have raised many questions on this issue. Clearly, they are keen to support our initiatives to scale up affordable housing across Canada with the “build Canada homes” initiative. We look forward to that support. It i…
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Madam Speaker, I urge the member opposite to check the facts. The year-to-year housing starts are up across Canada. We are building more than ever before. We need to scale that to the next level, though. That is why this government ran on a commitment to build up to 500,000 homes a year across Canada. In 10 years, we have to scale up to that level, and that means cranking up a whole new industry o…
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Mr. Speaker, contrary to Conservative disinformation, housing starts are up across the country right now. We are seeing both a year-over-year increase in housing starts and certainly a large increase over when the leader of the Conservative Party was the housing minister. We are going to take this forward with the most ambitious housing plan that has ever been seen in Canada. We are going to build…
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Mr. Speaker, homelessness is a huge challenge right across the country. We face a huge challenge in tackling it with affordable housing. We need to be working with the cities, towns and indigenous communities to make sure we are delivering. There is a reason we have a new government here, with a new cabinet, that is focused on building Canada and focused first and foremost on building affordable h…
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Mr. Speaker, the new government is taking action on housing affordability with a GST cut for new homebuyers. We appreciate the support around the House for that initiative to make housing more affordable, but we are going to go a lot further than that. We have to revolutionize how we build housing in this country, with modular, off-site construction to make our industry more efficient and to deliv…
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Mr. Speaker, we have a number of action steps in play right now, as I have answered repeatedly in the House. We are going to take action on a cut to the GST for new homebuyers, as well as to take action on reducing income taxes for 22 million Canadians. These are affordability measures that are for right now, and “build Canada homes” is on the way in to bring us a huge number of new affordable hom…
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Mr. Speaker, there is a reason we have a new Prime Minister and a new housing and infrastructure minister who are here to serve and here to scale up building affordable housing across Canada. Based on the experience I have had at city and provincial levels, I am here to deliver. Canada is facing a housing crisis. This government is committed to a leadership role, working with all of our partners, …
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Mr. Speaker, we are the only party that has recognized the urgent need to address the housing crisis and put forward a credible plan to address it. We will make housing more affordable by doubling the pace of construction across Canada with a housing plan that will get government back into the business of building. We will cut tape so bureaucracy is not getting in the way of homes being built at a…
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Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians spoke loud and clear in electing members of this side of the House to deliver on housing. This government, our new government, has put forward the most aggressive plan to build affordable housing this country has ever seen, and it starts today with a break on GST for new homebuyers.
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Mr. Speaker, our housing challenges have built up over several decades, and there is certainly the decade of inaction from the Conservative government. We are taking action. The new Government of Canada is focused on delivering on housing, with up to 500,000 housing starts. This is using every tool in the tool box, starting with a break on GST and starting with the important moves we are making to…
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite will have an opportunity to support a GST cut for first-time homebuyers, which is in front of us right now. We look forward to his support on that and giving new homebuyers a $50,000 break on their purchases up to $1 million. We look forward to his support on that and his support on the cut to income taxes for 22 million Canadians so they can afford housing.
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Mr. Speaker, the government is very focused on affordable housing. We look forward to working with all members of this House to deliver, from the new Government of Canada, affordable housing for the affordable end of the spectrum, from supportive housing to social housing and co-op housing. We need to focus where the need is greatest. That is where we will focus. We will work with the private sect…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for giving me an opportunity to highlight the importance of our GST cut for first-time homebuyers. We will be moving forward with a GST cut of up to $50,000 on homes worth up to $1 million. This is a huge opportunity for new homebuyers, in addition to the income tax break that we are giving to 22 million Canadians. Those are affordability measures that will…
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite seems to be ignoring the fact that there is a GST break coming for new homebuyers of $50,000. This is nothing that was introduced by the members opposite. There were no measures like this. When I was the mayor of Vancouver for seven years, there was no GST break from the then government. The inaction by members opposite has led us into this crisis. The current gove…
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Mr. Speaker, hearing this concern from across the floor gives me confidence that the members opposite will support a GST cut for first-time homebuyers. I hope that the same support will also extend from the members opposite to partnerships with cities, communities, indigenous communities, and provinces and territories. We will be good partners as a federal government and deliver affordability meas…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the voters in Don Valley North for electing my colleague to this House. We will get hundreds of thousands of new homes built, with more affordable homes across Canada, and double the share of non-market affordable housing in this country by starting up “build Canada homes”, a new entity that will build affordable homes at scale across Canada utilizing public land and even exis…
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Mr. Speaker, the government is taking action to put more money in Canadians' pockets by cutting their taxes right now. We expect the support of the members opposite to ensure that Canadians can afford more housing options because they have more money in their pockets. It is simple math that may be difficult for the Conservatives across the aisle to comprehend, but cutting taxes on GST for first-ti…
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Mr. Speaker, I served for 10 years as mayor of Vancouver on the front lines of a housing crisis. Cities, as many mayors and councillors here in Ottawa this week know, do not have the tools, the finances or the jurisdiction to solve a housing crisis. That is why I am here now: so the federal government can implement changes to make housing more affordable at a scale not seen in generations.
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Mr. Speaker, getting affordable homes built in Canada means partnership and collaboration across all levels of government: the federal government, provinces and territories, cities and indigenous communities, to face the challenges we have on the ground in communities. For seven of my 10 years as mayor, it was a Conservative government that did nothing for affordable housing across Canada.
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Mr. Speaker, we are spending many days this week with mayors and councillors from across the country at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting. I would caution members opposite against insulting our local government officials, who we are partnering with to deliver results on the ground. We will deliver cuts to the GST for first-time homebuyers. We are going to see a $50,000 savings for …
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Mr. Speaker, I say to the member opposite that we have real challenges with housing across this country, and we have to address the affordability. We also have to tackle the trade war we face with the United States. The tariffs are having an impact on Canadians. They are impacting affordability. They are impacting our markets. That is why I applaud the actions of our Prime Minister and our ministe…
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Mr. Speaker, again, I will caution the members opposite against insulting local government officials who are here in Ottawa this week to partner with the federal government. The only way we get housing built in this country is with alignment with the provinces, territories and local and indigenous governments. We need to work in partnership and collaboration to deliver housing for Canadians that t…
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Mr. Speaker, we have good news coming with the GST cut for first-time homebuyers. We are seeing a stall in the market as people wait for that cut. We hope the members opposite will support the cut to the GST. We are also going to focus on building more housing on the affordable end of the spectrum. That is what the young people of Canada need. That is what we need to deliver in this House for the …
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Mr. Speaker, the critical piece that we need to invest in is more affordable housing across Canada right now, and we are doing that by delivering a GST cut for new homebuyers. We are doing that by reducing the cost of housing through development cost charges. We are working in partnership with local governments to deliver that. We also have to be sure we build more affordable housing for young peo…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not about reducing the value of an individual's home or a senior's home. The member may wish to force seniors to sell their homes for less, but we are going to focus on building more affordable housing and delivering a cut to the GST for first-time homebuyers.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to be here. I want to, first of all, thank the people of Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby for giving me the opportunity to represent them here. On the issue of affordability and affordable housing, first, I am very proud to be part of a government that is committed to cutting taxes from day one here in the House. I am also looking forward to pursuing the most ambitio…
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