Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, sometimes I feel like we are a bit of a broken record in this House, because we constantly come back to the issues that Canadians are facing every single day. Those are, of course, the cost of living and its challenges. The ineffectiveness of the Liberal government makes life more difficult. I have to say Bill C-29 is just another example of a government that is interested in window d…
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Mr. Speaker, I did not hear a question. I heard a lot of rambling, so I do not know what to say.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important to point out that I truly believe there would be no need for rebate cheques if the government did not take the money in the first place. Frankly, this is classic Liberal government operation; they take more and more and then give a little back. It is the Ottawa-knows-best, top-down approach in which the government decides who wins and who loses. Conservatives believe t…
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Mr. Speaker, after years of the Prime Minister, life has never been so expensive. Rent has doubled and mortgages have doubled. New home construction was down again last year, and the housing bureaucrats of the government predict that it is going to be down again in 2024. The Liberal-NDP cost of living crisis is forcing Canadians to choose every month between paying their rent, putting food on the …
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of this NDP-Liberal government, the doom and gloom in the housing market is worse than ever. Fewer homes were built last year than the year before. Vacancy rates are at all-time lows, and rent is at an all-time high. Instead of removing the gatekeepers who block building, the Liberals cut them big cheques. In fact, the first four photo ops the housing minister took…
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Madam Speaker, it is hard to take that parliamentary secretary seriously, because he knows full well that with regard to these big expensive photo ops in Mississauga and Toronto, for example, more housing than ever is getting blocked despite them. Merely weeks after the Prime Minister's $471-million photo op in Toronto, the gatekeepers there said “no” to new housing right next door to a new transi…
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With regard to the Prime Minister: which senators did the Prime Minister personally call to discuss Bill C-234, An Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act?
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Honestly, Madam Speaker, that was respectful. It was meant in jest, and I think it was a very positive thing. Only one of them is offended, so they are actually playing the role very well, which is great.
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Madam Speaker, I am not sure whether the two members are familiar with The Muppet Show, but they remind me a bit of Waldorf and Statler right now. That is okay. Bill C-58—
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Madam Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in this place and talk about the issues of the day. I understand that Bill C-58 was not originally on the agenda, but it is still a great opportunity to speak about it. Prior to becoming the critic for the Conservative Party on housing, I had the honour of being its critic on labour. I worked directly with our current critic, the member for Essex, who,…
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Madam Speaker, I will explain to the member, because he clearly does not quite get it. Part of the reason we have more labour strife in this country is, in fact, the inflationary spending of the current government. The excessive borrowing is causing everything to go up in price, and people in organized labour, like everybody else, are struggling to put food on the table. That is why I am referring…
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Madam Speaker, absolutely I will. I would like to point out that the cost of living issue that I have been talking about is directly related to Bill C-58 and the fact that there is more labour strife in this country. We have seen a lot more of it. Obviously, I am just trying to make the point, tie in the point and help them understand, across the aisle, that, in fact, the Liberals' inflationary bo…
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Madam Speaker, I would note that my Liberal friends like me a lot more when I agree with them, but the member is patently wrong in this particular circumstance. We have heard from the Governor of the Bank of Canada that inflationary borrowing and spending are exacerbating inflation. They are not the only reason; I will grant the member that. We have also heard from a former Liberal finance ministe…
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Madam Speaker, it was a little jumbled; I will grant you that, and I think you are quite justified in being confused by what the member was talking about. The fact of the matter is that inflation has definitely been far worse over the last few years of the government. It has spiked because of exactly what I have been talking about. While inflation has always existed, it is certainly a lot worse no…
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Madam Speaker, the labour strife that exists in this country is, in large part, because life is too expensive. While the rights of workers to bargain collectively are important, it is also important for workers to be able to afford to put food on the table, heat their homes and drive to work if they need to do that, and the government is making these things more expensive with its inflationary spe…
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With regard to military housing and the Canadian Forces Housing Agency, in total and broken down by location: (a) what is the total number of rental housing units of military housing; (b) how many units are currently (i) occupied, (ii) unoccupied and available for rent, (iii) unoccupied and unavailable for rent; (c) outside of routine maintenance, how many units are currently in need of repairs, r…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of NDP-Liberal borrowing and spending, the Prime Minister is just not worth the cost. Ninety per cent of Canadian mortgages up for renewal in the next two years are at fixed interest rates of about 3%. Today, there are three million Canadians about to renew their mortgages, and they are facing rates of up to 7%. The Bank of Canada governor has confirmed that excessiv…
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Mr. Speaker, I can bet that the Liberals' mortgage charter and any other photo ops and PR stunts they do are about as useful as Monopoly money, but more Liberal vanity projects and PR campaigns clearly are not going to fix the fiscal mess that the Liberal-NDP government has caused over the last eight years. Canadians headed to renew their mortgages are facing double the payments. They are about to…
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Mr. Speaker, housing starts are actually down in Canada, so I do not know what fiction the member is listening to. Perhaps it is from the Minister of Finance, who thinks the dream of home ownership has never been so good in this country. The NDP-Liberal government will spend more on interest on the debt next year than on health care, so my question is simple. When will the Prime Minister stop abus…
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Mr. Speaker, rent is up. Interest rates are up. Mortgages are up. Groceries are up. Taxes are up. Debt is up, and Canadians are fed up. The Bank of Canada governor and Scotiabank economists are all sounding the alarm bell. The NDP-Liberal government's massive borrowing is making everything more expensive for Canadians. With two million people using food banks now, we know the Prime Minister is jus…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister paused the pain of his carbon tax for 3% of Canadians in regions where he was plummeting in the polls. Then the Liberal rural affairs minister said that if people in other regions wanted the same pause, well, they should elect Liberals. The people of Sudbury did elect a Liberal MP, yet her constituents are not getting a break. Yesterday, she could have voted to paus…
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Mr. Speaker, just this morning the environment commissioner confirmed that the government's so-called climate plan is nothing more than a punishing tax on heat, gas and groceries. After yesterday's vote, it is crystal clear that the NDP-Liberal government has no plan to make life more affordable either. Yesterday, the member for Sault Ste. Marie could have voted to pause the carbon tax on home hea…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister plans to quadruple the carbon tax on heat, gas and groceries. Now he has decided to pause the pain for the 3% of families where his poll numbers were plummeting and his MPs were revolting. The Liberal rural affairs minister said that, if people in the Prairies want a carbon tax break, they should elect Liberals. Well, the people in Sault Ste. Marie did elect a Liber…
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Mr. Speaker, I would simply acknowledge that our party understands the importance of investing in municipalities and infrastructure. However, the difference is that Conservatives will require results for that investment. If municipalities are seeking billions of dollars in federal infrastructure funding for things such as transit and transit improvements, we will require them to be on board and at…
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Mr. Speaker, there was an awful lot to unpack there. I think that if anybody is engaged in science fiction, it would be the NDP, because it keeps supporting a government that does not seem to understand the damage it is causing to Canadians. The fact of the matter is that government makes more money on housing than anyone else in the whole phase, at 33% of every housing unit in this country, on av…
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Mr. Speaker, I would reiterate for my hon. colleague what his own minister of housing said just a few weeks ago at our committee: At the start of the current government's term, in 2015, the housing situation in Canada was not in crisis. People could afford to buy a home and find a place to rent. Eight years later, house prices have doubled, rents have doubled, people cannot find a place to rent, i…
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Mr. Speaker, I move that the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, presented on June 12, be concurred in. We are talking about the national housing strategy report, which was done by our human resources committee and delivered in June 2023. We should know that the national housing strategy is a program t…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that food insecurity is not a new thing. It has only been getting worse under the Liberal-NDP coalition. In fact, 67% of those using food banks this year were living in market rental housing and paying so much they could not afford groceries. What is worse is that children now make up 33% of food bank clients. The NDP-Liberal talking points and photo ops are clearly not workin…
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Mr. Speaker, the NDP-Liberal government's inflationary spending is making everything more expensive, proving once again that the Prime Minister is just not worth the cost. Food Banks Canada reported that in March of this year, almost two million Canadians visited food banks. That is a 78.5% increase since March 2019. Rent has doubled, mortgages have doubled and the number of Canadians needing food…
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to present a petition started by Tammy Lachapelle-Ward, from Katrine, in my riding. The petitioners are calling on the Minister of Transport to request an amendment to current regulations that water aerodromes must follow the same requirements as land aerodromes on water. It is a loophole, and they often go around the local zoning and protections that exist on the shoreline…
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. It is in relation to the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, October 16, 2023, regarding the housing crisis in Canada.
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Mr. Speaker, I think the government maybe misses the point. Canada has 20 times the land and half the people of France and it is still cheaper to buy a house in France. Of course, after eight years of the Prime Minister's inflationary deficits, mortgage costs have doubled. In 2015, the average mortgage payment was $1,400. Today, it is over $3,500, and now half of Canada's housing markets are sever…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, all Canadians now know that the Prime Minister is simply not worth the cost. In 2021, a couple from Fergus, Ontario, swapped their four-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot home on three-quarters of an acre for a 6,300-square-foot, 16th century French château on 37 acres near the Bordeaux wine region in the south of France. Today, they admit that…
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Mr. Speaker, in 2017, we saw the Prime Minister announce with great fanfare the national housing strategy. He said it was going to be life-changing and transformational. That was in 2017. Since then, house prices have doubled, and we have just heard the opposition whip remind us that about nine out of 10 young people in this country do not own a home and do not believe they will ever have that opp…
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Mr. Speaker, I was on a municipal council when that downloading happened. The reason that was downloaded is because the federal government was reducing transfers to provinces because of the outrageous spending of the first Trudeau government, the downturn and the global economy. They stopped building housing. Of course, that trickle-down effect impacted municipalities the most. I know that member,…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know why his colleagues are clapping for him because he is clearly confusing zoning processes and planning applications with building inspectors. It should not take six years to get a piece of property rezoned to what someone wants, which is the exact same thing that is next door and on either side of the property. Making sure the building is built properly has nothing to do …
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Mr. Speaker, it is clear to me that he does not really understand how the CMHC does or does not work, and that is not surprising considering the fact that we have an agency that is charged with the responsibility of delivering this life-changing, transformational national housing strategy. It has been an abject failure and they still pay themselves massive bonuses at the end of the year for a job …
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Mr. Speaker, this summer I was proud to host The Scotty Charity Golf Tournament in my riding. We raised over $100,000 for charities in Parry Sound—Muskoka. I would like to thank our generous presenting sponsor, Andy Kidd with Devonleigh Homes, and the gold sponsors, Tulloch, HLD Muskoka and the Burry family, for their generous support. Over 150 participants came together to raise funds for Communi…
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With regard to surplus land owned by the government in census metropolitan areas: what are the details of all surplus land, including, for each piece of land, the (i) size, (ii) address, (iii) metropolitan area, (iv) description or type of land, (v) past use of land, if known, (vi) future planned use of land, if known?
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Mr. Speaker, as I met with people across the country this summer, I heard the same message over and over again: young people locked out of the housing market who cannot find a place to rent and who now believe they may never be able to own a home of their own; families that have to renew their mortgages, thanks to the Liberal-NDP deficits, inflation and interest rate hikes, are afraid of losing th…
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With regard to buildings and office space owned or leased by the government, excluding the Department of National Defence: (a) how much office space, by square footage, is currently (i) owned, (ii) leased; (b) how much did the government pay to lease office space during the last fiscal year; (c) what are the annual operating costs to run government buildings and office space, broken down by type o…
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Madam Speaker, just yesterday, we heard the housing minister talk about how they are getting the job done. We built more houses in the seventies than we are building right now, and they have this accelerator fund, where they are basically promising money for municipalities that just promise to get the job done but are not doing so. My question is this: Why do they not promise dollars for doors ins…
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Madam Speaker, earlier this year, the Liberals own officials predicted a major decline in new housing construction thanks to inflationary spending, interest rate hikes and labour shortages. They were correct. Yesterday we learned that new housing construction is down 23% from this time last year. That does not sound like the life-changing housing plan that Canadians were promised by the government…
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Mr. Speaker, I move that the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, presented to the House on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, be concurred in. I will be splitting my time with the member for Calgary Nose Hill. We have a housing crisis in this country. To restore affordability, the Canada Mortgage and Housi…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question. Her record on the housing file is well known. However, where I fundamentally disagree with her is on the fact that, when the federal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau got out of incentivizing the construction of purpose-built rentals, which I spoke about earlier, the private sector picked up the slack. Mom and Pop bought a second place, m…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government continues to borrow money and borrow money, and then borrow some more, which means higher deficits, which means higher inflation. That inflation is resulting in interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada, and that is making everything more expensive, especially housing and mortgages. Too many Canadians are struggling to pay their mortgages now and with these rate…
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Madam Speaker, I request a recorded vote.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague is quite correct. A big part of the problem is municipal regulation, and frankly, it is not so much even the regulations. When I was mayor, we made the rules a little tougher to develop in Muskoka and Huntsville particularly, and the development community was okay with that because, at the same time that we made the rules a little more restrictive, we also made them …
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Mr. Speaker, generally speaking, yes, I would agree with my hon colleague's comments that the national housing strategy needs to be strengthened, but the problem with the national housing strategy is that it is not really national. It is the Liberal plan. We need to be working with all levels of government to make sure we are all on the same page of the hymn book, and we are not right now. Efforts…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities to table a dissenting report to the main report of the committee with respect to the national housing strategy. We all know that when the national housing strategy was presented by the government some years ago, it was des…
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