Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, where are the results? The Prime Minister promised to double the pace of housing construction to almost 500,000 new homes a year, but his own budget watchdog said his new $13-billion housing agency will build only about 5,000 homes. The CMHC's chief economist pointed this week to “weaker momentum for future supply”. Meanwhile, Canada's home prices are up 28% since 2015. Canada has the…
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Mr. Speaker, the member just described what happens in a recession. The fact is that Canadians need results. This Prime Minister promised results. In fact, he promised to build at a speed not seen in a generation, but all he has delivered in his first year is a third federal housing bureaucracy with no targets, no timelines and no results. He has given Canadians higher costs, higher debt and fewer…
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Mr. Speaker, what I find most troubling about this particular bill is that it is not too dissimilar from the government's Build Canada Homes creation, an agency created with $13 billion, with zero targets, zero metrics and no transparency. Nobody knows how it is really supposed to work or what it is going to do. It is just going to do non-market housing. The bill before us would involve $1.713 bil…
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Mr. Speaker, home builders and homebuyers in Ontario are still waiting for the federal government to finalize the regulations to permit them to rebate the HST on all new homes. This is creating more confusion and uncertainty in the market, and it is leaving both buyers and builders in limbo. My question is very simple: On what date will the Liberal government finally live up to its promise? I want…
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Mr. Speaker, the fundamental difference between that member and me is that I recognize the importance of getting things done. Conservatives have proposed all along that we use federal dollars as leverage to make sure that municipalities are getting the job done. I will acknowledge that, in reality, the housing accelerator fund has been useful in some small and rural communities that are already do…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague always has incredibly insightful questions. That is a very good point. In fact, what has happened with respect to development charges is that the federal government and the provincial government, in Ontario only, have come up with a program to reduce development charges, but not to reduce them unless the local municipality applies to the program. A local municipality can …
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Mr. Speaker, could the minister explain to the House why we are rushing through this bill now, keeping in mind, of course, that the federal government now has four federal housing agencies? We started with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation which is the original Crown corporation that actually solved the crisis after the Second World War. Then there was the Canada Lands Company which is a…
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Mr. Speaker, that is another incredibly insightful question from my colleague. He happens to be a builder, and he knows what he is talking about. He has actually built homes, and he understands these changes and what they have done. The real problem with the building codes process federally is, of course, the process itself. There is a whole process that they go through where they make recommendat…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to say that I am a big fan of that member. We have done some great work together. However, I think she has been afflicted with a very common Liberal problem where she heard what she wanted to hear. There is no question that builders and developers said they would use Build Canada Homes and work with it, that they have to work with the cards they are dealt by this federal govern…
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Madam Speaker, I do not think the minister entirely understood my question. When I asked him why there were no targets with this new $13-billion agency, the fourth agency, he explained to me what each of them does. Here is a news flash: I understand what each of them does. I just do not understand why we have created a fourth one. Then I asked very specifically why we would create a third federal …
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Mr. Speaker, it is interesting. As we are here to discuss third reading of Bill C-20, the Build Canada Homes act, I have been sort of reflecting a bit. Of course, I have spoken on this issue a few times. I have spoken on housing many times in the House of Commons, in committee and certainly around the country. I guess it is no secret that I spent most of my adult life in local government, in munic…
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague that this is a crisis, in many ways created by the current government. It has been building for years, I grant the Liberals that, but their solutions are, in fact, what the member said: They are building new bureaucracies, creating new agencies, and they give money out based on promises from cities that they will be better. As a case in point, the …
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Mr. Speaker, could the member who just delivered his speech explain to me and to the House why we need a third federal Crown corporation to do what he described it would do? Why can CMHC or Canada Lands Company not do these things?
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Madam Speaker, I find it interesting that back in 2017, when the Trudeau government came out with its national housing strategy, it gave it to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the first federal Crown corporation for housing, which delivered those programs, among other things. The CMHC does a lot of research on housing, probably more research than any other group in the country, in fact…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians do not elect a prime minister.
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Mr. Speaker, in response to the need to build 500,000 homes per year, the Prime Minister promised to build at a speed not seen in a generation. Today, the housing industry projects a nearly 20% decline in construction over the next three years, while Stats Canada reports that home ownership among young people is at the lowest level it has been since just after the Second World War. Even the Parlia…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians have heard this over and over again, but alas, Canadians cannot survive, and their jobs will not survive, on Liberal rhetoric alone. Tariffs are higher, and they are broader. They are hurting Canadian workers, yet the government has not gotten any of them removed. On behalf of the 2.6 million Canadians whose livelihoods depend on trade with the United States, where is the pl…
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Mr. Speaker, under the Prime Minister, tariffs on steel have doubled, tariffs on lumber have tripled and barriers on Canadian manufacturers have only expanded, yet he has not secured the removal of a single one of those tariffs. While he says those tariffs are part of the reason that Canada's economy is struggling, Mexico is getting close to a deal with the U.S. There are 2.6 million Canadians who…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister talked about more of these short-term measures, but Canadians have really been waiting for years. In that time, affordability has worsened and supply has fallen. The Liberals promised to build 500,000 homes a year, but last year not nearly half of that number were built. As it turns out, Liberal promises do not build homes. Canadians cannot wait any longer. At what point …
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are being asked to believe that short-term measures will fix a long-term housing crisis. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada is showing that residential permits are down nearly 5% year over year. In the GTA, new home sales are at a 35-year low. The Liberals are pointing to temporary measures like a one-year tax break and vague promises about costs being reduced by up to 50%. If the…
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Mr. Speaker, from the first run of sap to the last maple taffy, communities across our region are coming together to celebrate one of Canada's oldest and sweetest traditions. Whether it is Maple Mayhem at Muskoka Lakes Farm and Winery, the community spirit of the Parry Sound Maple Fest, the energy of the Muskoka Maple Festival in downtown Huntsville, the hands-on experiences of the Muskoka maple t…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a new day, and that means there is another CMHC housing report that is warning that housing starts are falling because projects simply no longer work financially. Government taxes, fees and regulations now account for up to half the cost of a new home. When government takes that much, fewer homes get built, so will the Liberal government please just listen to the Conservatives, …
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Mr. Speaker, it is not surprising the minister read only a part of that report, because the report actually talks about how housing starts are falling. They are dropping dramatically, and the reason they are dropping is that the cost of government is just too high and housing construction is too expensive. My question is simple. Instead of creating a fourth federal housing bureaucracy with the new…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his work with young people. He focuses a lot on youth employment and unemployment, as it were, and he is quite correct. I have talked to young people all across the country and in my own community, even before I came to this place. Young people hope to own a home. This is something my generation and previous generations simply took for granted. The real…
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Mr. Speaker, I noted that my hon. colleague mentioned some great things going on in the city of London. It is important for us to congratulate Mayor Morgan and his council for some of the things they have done to get housing built faster in that city. What they have focused on is streamlining the process, speeding up approvals and zoning as of right, so people do not have to go through the rezonin…
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Madam Speaker, just before my formal remarks, I would like to take one moment to mention that two weeks ago today, I was able to stand in the House and congratulate Megan Oldham from Parry Sound on a bronze medal win at the Olympics in Milan. I am excited to report that, a week ago today, I had the immense privilege of standing at the bottom of the hill and watching her win gold in the big air eve…
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Madam Speaker, as usual, there is a fundamental flaw with that member's line of argument. I honestly do not understand what he is talking about. There is no question that the federal government has a role. I think I have talked about that many times. He is just not paying attention. That is fine. I do not really expect him to pay attention. The fact of the matter is that, as Conservatives, we woul…
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I know him very well. I talk to him all the time.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is a former deputy mayor of the city of Toronto, which is one of the most expensive cities in the country to build a home in. I am sure she is quite familiar with how much cost the local government and the city add to the cost of every new home. I am wondering if she might be able to speak to the cost of government, particularly at the local level, and if she sees a way…
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Mr. Speaker, I wonder if my colleague could comment a little more on the notion of building bureaucracy. There are now four federal housing agencies. Build Canada Homes is the third federal Crown corporation focused on housing. I wonder if the member might be able to predict how many Crown corporations it will take to build a home.
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Madam Speaker, I do not know whether the new Crown corporations talk to the other Crown corporations, but the CMHC, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, is the first housing Crown corporation of the government, and it is talking about making sure we build between 430,000 and 500,000 homes a year for the next several years to restore affordability. However, instead of engaging CMHC to help …
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Madam Speaker, I will tell the member right now that, in fact, Quebec is one of the provinces that actually has done fairly well on housing. There is no question that partnerships between the federal level and the provincial level are important. I would simply argue that those partnerships should focus on getting provinces to reduce the burden of endless reviews and consultants' reports. We have t…
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Madam Speaker, that is a very important point, and I probably should have spoken about it more in my speech. I listened to the minister, and I heard all about these new projects. They are all focused on rentals, and there is clearly no question that there is a need for rentals in Canada. It was the first Trudeau prime minister who cancelled the incentivization of building purpose-built rentals, an…
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Madam Speaker, I suppose the FCM can be forgiven for thinking that there may be some results coming from this government after 10 years, but the fact of the matter remains that the Liberals have created a fourth federal housing bureaucracy. There is the department; there is CMHC, a Crown corporation that has existed since just after the war; there is the Canada Lands Company, which is already deve…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a treat to rise today in the House to congratulate Megan Oldham on her incredible bronze medal performance at the Milan Olympics. Megan's achievement is the result of years of hard work, discipline, sacrifice and relentless effort, but the quiet determination it takes to compete on the world stage is what we saw. When Canadians watched Megan stand on the podium, they did not jus…
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Mr. Speaker, we should not be surprised the minister is talking about his build Canada rentals project, but home ownership is what is collapsing. In 2020, 69% of housing starts were for ownership. Today it is 49%. New home sales are down 45% in the GTA, and builders are laying off workers. I have a very simple question for the minister: Does he really and truly believe that creating a fourth feder…
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Mr. Speaker, new home sales in the GTA have fallen to their lowest in 45 years, putting 100,000 jobs at risk. Home ownership among 30-year-olds to 34-year-olds has dropped from 62% to 52%. Young Canadians are losing hope; 93% of gen Z and millennials are worried about housing, and nearly half of them are planning to leave their home communities. The Prime Minister promised to help Canadians buy th…
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Mr. Speaker, between 2011 and 2021, home ownership among 30- to 34-year-olds fell from 60% to 52%. From 2019 to 2024, for every 100 adults added to the Canadian population, only 12 homes intended for ownership were built. That is less than half the rate of the earlier decades. How does the Prime Minister expect young Canadians to ever buy their first home when his government keeps using the same o…
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Mr. Speaker, new home sales are down 45% in the GTA and 56% in Vancouver. Rebates do not matter to first-time homebuyers if no homes are getting built. Nearly half of young Canadians are now considering leaving their home communities because they cannot afford to stay. When will the minister listen to all the experts, the builders, the developers and the Conservatives, and remove the HST on all ne…
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Mr. Speaker, CTV reports that 35,000 households left the GTA last year because the cost of housing is simply too expensive. The Missing Middle Initiative reported yesterday that “Ontario's housing engine has stalled”. In the GTA, preconstruction sales for condos are down 89%, and for ground-oriented homes, they are down 65%. This means that starts have fallen off a cliff, and it means it is going …
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's fourth housing bureaucracy, Build Canada Homes, replaces Justin Trudeau's life-changing national housing strategy with less money and even bigger promises. We need 480,000 homes per year in the next 10 years to restore affordability, but the Parliamentary Budget Officer reports that Build Canada Homes will only build about 26,000 over the next five. So, why will t…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for demonstrating that he does not understand the scale of the problem. In fact, the industry has told us over and over again that cutting the GST on all homes under $1.3 million is the only thing that will get the market moving again. It is not just us. Mike Moffatt, the Liberals' housing adviser, says the exact same thing. Why do they not listen to him?
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Mr. Speaker, budget 2025 was supposed to mark what we were told was going to be a generational shift in this country. That is what we were told. When it came to housing, the government promised something truly historic. In fact, the budget documents declared rather boldly, I might add, that budget 2025 was the most ambitious housing plan since the Second World War, backed by more than $11 billion …
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Mr. Speaker, it is clear to me that my hon. colleague understands the problem in housing. This is a guy who used to build homes, so he actually understands the cost of local government, the cost of delays of the local government and the cost of development charges. What the current federal Liberal government promised to do in the election campaign was to get development charges cut in half in citi…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be very clear that Conservatives do not believe in further unconditional grants to cities and provinces. We believe in funding infrastructure based on one result only, and that is the number of homes that get built. With regard to the days of just giving money and hoping for the best, that has clearly failed. That is from 10 years of Justin Trudeau. That is not what we need any…
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Mr. Speaker, what I am not surprised about from the member is that he seems to believe that everyone should live in government-owned homes. Conservatives believe that it is a right of Canadians to own their own home. We think the government should get out of the way and not try to own everything, not try to control everything. In fact, the example I gave is what we did right after the war. It was …
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Mr. Speaker, Tuesday's budget presented a $78.2-billion deficit, driving up prices and making life more expensive for families all across Canada. Food inflation is skyrocketing and made worse by the government's massive debts. This year, food bank visits in Canada hit 2.2 million. Ten years ago, in Parry Sound—Muskoka, an idyllic rural collection of small communities where neighbours take care of …
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Mr. Speaker, if spending money could solve the housing crisis, we would have a surplus right now. This is a government that named a housing minister who made housing taxes 141% more expensive in Vancouver and increased the price of homes by 149%. We are in a housing crisis now, and it is clear this guy does not get it. The experts are warning of 100,000 job losses in this sector. If the government…
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Mr. Speaker, the Toronto homebuilding industry released a scathing report on the government’s budget, warning of 100,000 job losses in the sector despite the Prime Minister's promising 500,000 new homes a year during the election. The government continues to refuse to implement our policy of cutting the GST on all new homes under $1.3 million. Now, housing starts have plummeted and developers are …
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Mr. Speaker, food bank visits have skyrocketed to 2.2 million this year. Home prices are 54% higher today than they were in October 2015. CTV reported this morning that a 76-year-old man in Prince Edward Island has been living in his car for the last two months because he cannot afford rent. The Prime Minister has told young Canadians that they need to sacrifice. The question is very simple: How m…
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