Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is fascinating that, after we started talking about housing, the hon. member put forward a plan that tinkers around the edges, which experts have indicated demonstrates a lack of understanding of the urgency and scale of Canada's housing crisis. For example, we have advanced a measure that would get rid of GST on apartment construction. He has now made a commitment to put it back o…
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Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member is concerned about building affordable homes, he should talk to the people who advocate for the building of affordable homes. They are telling us to advance a full GST measure, not a half measure, because that is what is going to get homes built in this country. The Leader of the Opposition plans to cut the housing accelerator fund, which is changing the way that ci…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. Yesterday evening, I had a productive and positive conversation with my Quebec counterpart, Minister Duranceau. We are working in partnership with Quebec to establish programs to support people who need more affordable housing. We are going to continue to work with provinces and our partners at different levels of government to establish programs…
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Mr. Speaker, over nearly two decades of Canadian politics, the member has not seen a program that helps Canadians that he does not want to cut. Over the course of my time in the chamber, I have watched him attack the programs that support my constituents, programs like employment insurance and the Canada pension plan. We are going to continue to put forward measures that are going to support Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, welcoming an ambitious level of newcomers is not breaking the immigration system, and we want to make sure communities are equipped to welcome them. We are not going to take lessons from the Conservatives, who failed miserably when it came to housing, by doing absolutely nothing. We have removed taxes on home construction. We are changing the way cities build homes. We are going to bu…
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Mr. Speaker, I share my hon. colleague's perspective that we need to build more housing in this country, including subsidized housing for low-income families. I also agree with the NDP that the reason we find ourselves with such an extraordinary housing shortage is that federal governments of different partisan stripes for decades have vacated the space. We re-entered the sector in 2017 with the a…
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Mr. Speaker, it is hard to take seriously a question from the hon. member after I read a news article, just a couple of evenings ago, indicating that he and some of his Conservative colleagues went on a $45,000 trip to have $600 bottles of champagne in the United Kingdom, so they could meet with people who oppose sensible policies to put a price on pollution. The reality is that we are going to co…
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Mr. Speaker, I have had many conversations with the people of Quebec. I have spoken with my counterpart, and my team is speaking to his team. We exchanged messages this morning. I hope to get a call this evening. The fact of the matter is we both see building housing in Quebec and across the country as a priority. We must work together to achieve those objectives. I will keep working on this. I wi…
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Mr. Speaker, I share the hon. member's concern about making sure some of the most vulnerable Canadians have a safe and affordable place to call home. That was in fact the motivation for the national housing strategy where our government re-entered the social housing space after decades of governments, I should say of different partisan stripes, vacated it. In reality, we know we need to do more. T…
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Mr. Speaker, people unable to find a home they can afford are struggling. That is why we started implementing national housing strategies decades ago. These investments are necessary. We are starting to build affordable homes again. In addition, he wants to see action. Last week, we eliminated the GST on the construction of apartments in this country. This is going to add to the supply. This is go…
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Mr. Speaker, with enormous respect for my hon. colleague, when her party leader was the housing minister, he advanced a program with $300 million that he said would build 25,000 homes. Fewer than 100 were built. We have advanced programs that are going to build homes and that have been building homes. The reality is that we know we need to do more. That is why we are eliminating the GST on apartme…
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Mr. Speaker, with respect, I think it is very dangerous when any member of the House starts playing politics with immigration. With respect, if the Conservatives think that breaking the immigration system is tied to the fact that we have welcomed—
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Mr. Speaker, with great respect, our plan to make sure that Canadians have a roof over their heads is to build more homes. We advanced a plan that is going to cut the GST for people who are building homes for Canadians. We are changing the way that cities build homes. We will grow the capacity of the workforce to build those homes. Realistically, when we dig into the housing plan, if we can call i…
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Mr. Speaker, with great respect to my hon. colleague, she would recognize the disastrous consequences that would have befallen Canadian households if we had not been there for them during their time of need. Their argument ultimately boils down to the fact that we should not have provided support to families to keep food on the table and that we should not have provided support to Canadian employe…
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Mr. Speaker, I find it fascinating the Conservatives' new-found interest in making life more affordable for Canadians. What is funny is she does not realize that many of her colleagues voted against the Canada child benefit, which puts more money in the pockets of nine out of 10 Canadian families and stops any child care cheques from going to millionaires. They opposed increases to old age securit…
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Mr. Speaker, in response to the question, changes concerning amortization periods for insured mortgages falls under the purview of the Minister of Finance.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague, the member of Parliament for Brampton South, for her advocacy for her community. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the city of Brampton, where we worked directly with the mayor and members of council in the city to uncover some of the plans that they might advance to help grow the supply of housing in their community. One of the things we have been he…
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague well knows that Nova Scotians are hurting for a number of reasons, including that we are on the front lines of the fight against climate change. Over the course of the past year, we have seen hurricane Fiona devastate our communities. We have seen floods sweep our neighbours away. We have seen wildfires as we have never seen them before. These things come at a cost. …
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Mr. Speaker, if we want to add housing units in Canada, then we have to invest in building homes. The reality is that the Conservative Party likes to point out the problem. It likes to assign blame, but when it comes time to advance solutions, it is nowhere to be seen. The Conservatives are advancing half measures that would not make a meaningful lick of difference on the need to build housing at …
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Mr. Speaker, let me begin by congratulating the hon. member on taking his spot in the House. Having only recently arrived, he can be forgiven if he is not aware that the party he now is a member of voted against many of the measures that, in fact, make a direct impact on having life more affordable for his constituents. This includes investments in the Canada child benefit. This includes new inves…
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Mr. Speaker, I find it fascinating to watch the Conservatives' line of questioning. They certainly seem to think they have the solutions to Canada's housing crisis, but when we actually look at what they are proposing, they are just tinkering around the edges with half measures that would not make a meaningful difference. We are getting rid of the GST on apartment construction in this country, and…
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Mr. Speaker, I often try to put myself in the shoes of a non-partisan observer, thinking about what debates may transpire in this chamber, in order to determine what may be appropriate, in terms of both the substance and the procedure of our debates. My sense is that people who come from my community would like to see that we give an opportunity for parliamentarians who have a particular point of …
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Mr. Speaker, Shakespeare also said this: And do as adversaries do in law, Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. Although we disagree on the appropriateness of time allocation, I will continue to conduct myself respectfully in this debate. The reality is that this is not an erosion of democracy. It is important that we have the opportunity to debate legislation. That has taken place, both …
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Mr. Speaker, I always enjoy the opportunity to engage with my hon. colleague. He is one of the most articulate members in the House of Commons. With enormous respect, it is important that we not adjudicate the ability of a government to make a difference in people's lives by the number of bills that a government has adopted. It may be that there are bills that have an enormous impact that will tak…
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Mr. Speaker, though my colleague may be a new member, I can say she provides immense value to the debates that take place in this chamber, and I thank her for her presence here and the representation of her community. The member has learned a lesson, though she may be in her first term, far more quickly than I did when I was in my first term. When I was first elected, I wanted to chase every car, …
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague has included a number of aspects in his question. I will do my best to address them in the time provided for in this particular instance. I think it is important to recognize that, in any given instance, reasonable people can disagree on the appropriateness of a procedural measure used in the House of Commons. In this particular instance, where there is widespread ag…
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Mr. Speaker, with enormous respect for my colleague, it is revisionist history to suggest time allocation is being used more now than ever in history. I would point him to the many instances when the former House leader of the Conservative government, when it was in power before October 2015, implemented time allocation measures on hundreds of occasions in order to stifle debate. The reality is, w…
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Mr. Speaker, I always enjoy questions from the hon. member. I find them to be thoughtful, even though we often find ourselves in disagreement. I think to have respectful engagement on issues that matter is very important. With respect, there are a number of different kinds of sanctions that may be most appropriate for different kinds of scenarios. In fact, before the changes to Bill S-8, there are…
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Mr. Speaker, it will come as no surprise that I agree entirely with my hon. colleague who has posed the question. The reality is that I have to come to understand over my now nearly eight years in this institution, that the greatest currency that any of us have in Parliament is time. There are a finite number of legislative days in which we have to advance laws that will improve the quality of lif…
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Mr. Speaker, I cannot help but feel this question period is a reunion among friends. I mentioned my friend with whom I sat on the transport committee for a few years. The next two questioners I have spent considerable time on the finance committee with, which I very much enjoyed. I cannot speak for His Majesty's loyal opposition, but I can observe from my own perspective a desire to interfere with…
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Mr. Speaker, to the contrary, my answer is no. I too have great respect for my colleague. Again, in this instance, I think it is appropriate to exercise the government's ability to use time allocation in order to complete a piece of legislation that would make a fundamentally important change to render people inadmissible to Canada who have been sanctioned for gross human rights violations, for co…
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Mr. Speaker, to respond to my hon. colleague, it is important that we understand that time allocation is not inherently a good nor a bad thing. The appropriateness of its use depends on how it is implemented in a given set of circumstances. To one extreme, if the government is using time allocation to stifle debate or avoid accountability, I think most people would agree that is a bad thing, but o…
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Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for my hon. colleague and had the opportunity to spend my first few years as a member of Parliament on the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities with him. Unfortunately, in this particular instance I have a different perspective. The use of time allocation, I remind him, was a routine part of proceedings before we formed government in 201…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her advocacy on behalf of vulnerable people in Canada and around the world. Of course, members will have seen by now that the Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the safe third country agreement, recognizing that Canada and the United States have the ability to make decisions to monitor and control the flow of people who seek asylum in Canada in a way that…
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Madam Speaker, I think it is very important that we do not start to believe that the solution to our housing challenges is to close the door to more newcomers. We need to use our immigration policies to help bring in the people who have the skills we need to help build more homes. I think that all members of the House, hopefully, support continuing to integrate newcomers into our society. We need …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her advocacy, along with members who come from all parties represented in the House of Commons, in finding a solution for innocent victims who were taken advantage of by fraudsters who allowed them to enter Canada on the basis of fraudulent letters of admission. Yesterday we announced a new path forward, including a task force, that would give an opportun…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his advocacy for liberalized travel policy when it comes to Canada. I am pleased to share with this House that last week we announced a major change to immigration policy that is going to allow more people to come to Canada visa-free if they have held a Canadian visa within the past 10 years or hold a current American visa. This applies to nationa…
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Mr. Speaker, it is fascinating to hear my colleague make a case for classic neo-liberal economics, which tends to favour the wealthy and does not do much for the working-class people living in communities like mine. The reality is that the Conservatives' argument, their plan to deal with the rising cost of living, is to make sure families receive less money from the government to help them with th…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with much of my hon. colleague's question. I am glad to share that we have been working very hard, as we discussed in a recent meeting just a little more than a week ago. We are working to develop a process to ensure that those innocent students, who are the victims of fraud, will have an opportunity to remain in Canada. However, to the extent that people committed fraud, or w…
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Mr. Speaker, the deficit spending Conservatives are talking about included the pandemic supports that made sure that families in my community could keep food on the table and a roof over their kids' heads. Those supports helped small businesses keep the lights on and the doors open. Now they are blaming the Canadians who availed themselves of those pandemic benefits for the deficit spending they n…
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They can jeer during my response as they may, but Conservatives know this is true. In fact, they knew that—
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Mr. Speaker, to be absolutely clear, in the hon. member's question, when he refers to deficit spending, he is largely referring to the supports that kept families fed during the pandemic. The programs that we put forward helped keep a roof over the heads of kids in my community. They helped small businesses keep the lights on and the doors open.
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Mr. Speaker, earlier in question period, I reminded the Conservatives that their leader, at the beginning of the pandemic, held a press conference where he decried our pandemic benefits as big, fat government programs. If members watch that video on the Internet, the member who posed the question is standing behind him. The reality is the spending we put in place has supported people through the p…
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Mr. Speaker, over my time as a parliamentarian, I have had the honour and privilege of getting to know the hon. member and I respect him deeply. However, I have to say that when we are dealing with the consequences of climate change at home, we know we need to reduce our pollution. We also know the most cost-effective way to combat climate change is to put a price on pollution. With respect to thi…
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Mr. Speaker, I know that it is difficult for Conservatives to accept this, but climate change is real. I came to Ottawa this morning from my home province of Nova Scotia, where our communities are literally on fire. Thousands upon thousands of families have been displaced from their homes. Hundreds are watching as their homes may be turned into ashes. Eight months ago, hurricane Fiona damaged our …
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Mr. Speaker, I would remind all members of the House that climate change is real. I came to Ottawa this morning from my home province of Nova Scotia, where some of our communities are literally on fire. There are thousands upon thousands of Nova Scotians who have been displaced from their homes, and hundreds who are risking—
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague and I have something in common. Both of our provinces are on fire right now. The reality is that, for eight years now in the House, every time we advanced a policy that would reduce emissions, the Conservatives voted against it. For goodness' sake, one of the members of Parliament on the Conservative side from Nova Scotia has described investments in heat pumps as fa…
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Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear: the Century Initiative plan is not our government's policy. It is very important to welcome people who work in our communities and make an essential contribution to improving Canadians' quality of life. It is possible, important and essential to welcome newcomers while protecting francophones' demographic weight. Not only is it possible, it is this government's p…
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Mr. Speaker, I would caution all members of this House against claiming some sort of a monopoly on caring about our nation's heroes. Terry Fox is loved by Canadians, not because his picture was in the passport but because of the courage he demonstrated during the Marathon of Hope, and the research funding that has come to help advance care for cancer patients. My family has been affected by cancer…
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Mr. Speaker, I would caution the opposition leader against claiming that he somehow has a monopoly on caring about Terry Fox. He should talk to the member for Oakville about her advocacy for Terry Fox and the money she has helped secure for cancer research. Terry Fox lives on in the memories of Canadians because of the courage he demonstrated during the Marathon of Hope and in—
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