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Madam Chair, the hon. member is absolutely right. When we brought in the first-time homebuyer incentive, the Conservatives voted against it, even though they claim to care about first-time homebuyers. When it came to introducing the first-time homebuyer tax-free savings account, it was the same story, and the Conservatives voted against it.
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Madam Chair, we are proud to have worked with members of Parliament here to introduce the top-up to the Canada housing benefit, which reached 800,000 vulnerable renters. We are proud that we got that into the hands of our Canadian renters.
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Madam Chair, we are absolutely committed to making sure that Canadians have access to their dream of home ownership. That is why we introduced the first-time homebuyer incentive. That is why we introduced—
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Madam Chair, we have done more than any other government to invest in more affordable housing options for British Columbians.
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Madam Chair, we know that Canadians are struggling to find housing that is affordable. That is precisely why we introduced measures to help Canadians access their dream of home ownership, by putting in place policies like the first-time homebuyer incentive.
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Madam Chair, I wish the hon. member was tough on her own caucus, which believes that the federal government should have less leadership on housing and that we should withdraw from the housing sector completely.
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Madam Chair, the hon. member and her party want to play games instead of dealing with the serious challenges facing Canadians. We are the party that is putting solutions on the table and they vote against those solutions.
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Madam Chair, we are the ones who delivered for British Columbians through the Canada–British Columbia housing benefit, which is now helping tens of thousands of British Columbian households get money directly to help them with rent. What did the hon. member and her party do? They voted against those supports. She can quote all the numbers she likes, but when it came time for action, they did not—
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Madam Chair, does the official opposition believe in a right to housing, yes or no?
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Madam Chair, the Conservatives miraculously think that doing less on housing will build more housing.
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Madam Chair, I hope the party opposite actually comes around to appreciating federal investments in housing. They do not believe we should do more on housing.
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Madam Chair, when that party was in office, it did not invest in northern housing.
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Madam Chair, the Conservatives do not even believe in the right to housing.
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Madam Chair, the Conservatives did not invest in housing in the north.
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Madam Chair, the hon. member has asked a number of questions about northern housing, but guess what. They do not have any plan for northern housing in their so-called housing plan.
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Madam Chair, that number is inaccurate, but, worse than that, the Conservatives released a so-called housing plan with no mention of northern housing.
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Madam Chair, why did the Conservatives vote against the Canada housing benefit that is helping renters?
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Madam Chair, I do not understand why the Conservative members are opposed to getting real help to Canadian renters.
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Madam Chair, they have been available. It is a long-term commitment that flows through different streams. One is through the bilateral agreements. Another one is through the northern—
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Madam Chair, I was proud to work with Niagara Region to deliver rapid housing units for the most vulnerable in that region. On top of that, we are proud to have delivered rental supplements to Canadians. Conservatives voted against it, and now they pretend to care.
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Madam Chair, the member and his party have opposed all our investments in affordable housing construction and repair, which are precisely to help families like the ones that he mentioned, but then he has the audacity to come to the House and pretend to care about this issue.
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Madam Chair, the hon. member was denigrating the national housing strategy. We have delivered almost half a million newly built or repaired units for Canadians and we are supporting, through the national housing strategy, almost two millions households. That party and the member can continue to denigrate those results, but we know that this program is working for Canadians, and we need to do more,…
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Madam Chair, that is not only inaccurate, but misleading. The hon. member is taking one program among many programs and pretending that is the only investment we have made in Niagara Region. Nothing could be further from the truth, and he knows that.
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Madam Chair, I would encourage the hon. member to learn more about the national housing strategy because he is isolating one program among many and then extrapolating that and saying those are the only investments we made in the Niagara region. That is inaccurate. I am happy to provide details to him on all the different programs in the national housing strategy.
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Madam Chair, what I know is that, through the rapid housing initiative, we have invested $900 million in Ontario, resulting in 2,800 deeply affordable permanent housing units, and that is just one program among many.
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Madam Chair, we do recognize that many northern communities face unique housing challenges. That is why, since 2015, we have invested close to $1.1 billion to help over 18,000 families in the north.
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Madam Chair, I am happy to provide detailed numbers on federal funding in Nunavut since 2015. The affordable housing innovation fund got $3.2 million. The national housing co-investment fund got $17 million. The rapid housing initiative got almost $5 million.
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Madam Chair, I do agree with the hon. member that we have to prioritize funding for housing in the north, and I am happy to provide more details in subsequent questions.
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Madam Chair, we know that there are long-standing housing gaps in indigenous communities. We will continue to work with first nations, Inuit and Métis nation partners to co-develop and implement community-led housing strategies. Out of a number of different investments, I will just point to a few: $400 million over 10 years for Inuit-led housing and the new $4-billion commitment for the urban, rur…
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Madam Chair, we are committed to making sure we address the needs of indigenous peoples through a co-developed indigenous, distinctions-based housing strategy. We have provided significant investments over—
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Madam Chair, we do uphold those rights, as evidenced by our co-development approach for the urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy.
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Madam Chair, that is not quite accurate. In fact, the $4-billion allocation builds on the existing money of $300 million, which is going to urgent needs while we build on the larger strategy.
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Madam Chair, the total amount outside of the funds that the hon. member mentioned is $400 million as part of the northern housing strategy.
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Madam Chair, the hon. member is right. We have, of course, allocated significant resources that are making an impact on the ground, but there is more work to be done. We are committed to doing that work.
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Madam Chair, that is not fair. In Nunavut alone we have helped over 5,000 families and supported individuals to meet their housing needs. Yes, there is more work to be done, but to say that there has been no action—
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Madam Chair, we do prioritize housing for indigenous women through our investments. We just recently announced $103 million to fund projects in over 21 communities, particularly for indigenous women fleeing from domestic violence.
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Madam Chair, how can the hon. member say this when we committed $400 million as part of the northern housing priorities in budget 2018 and then an additional $845 million over seven years for Inuit distinctions-based housing recently? These are significant dollars and they are in addition to the rapid housing initiative investments and other investments.
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Madam Chair, I welcome the hon. member's questions and the prioritization of housing and action against homelessness. I can assure the member that our government prioritizes funding to support organizations supporting those who are experiencing homelessness on the ground. We have doubled that funding, in fact.
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Madam Chair, I do appreciate the questions. I just want to clarify a few things. I think there are some inaccuracies in some of the assertions made. Of the rental construction financing initiative, for the over 190 projects funded by CMHC, only four are connected to or are real estate investment trusts. That means that these projects are really increasing supply. They also have to meet the afforda…
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Madam Chair, every Canadian has a right to an affordable place to call home. The housing needs and economic circumstances of Canadians vary widely, which is why the national housing strategy has different programs for different people.
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Madam Chair, I have news for the hon. member; the housing accelerator fund will enable local governments to do exactly that. They can use some of the proceeds and incentive amounts of money through the housing accelerator fund to actually buy land and build more affordable housing.
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Madam Chair, that is not fair. I met with the Manitoba housing minister, Rochelle Squires, precisely on that project. By the way, we built 50,000 units of affordable housing for seniors.
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Madam Chair, I am happy to discuss the intricacies of the rental market with the hon. member, but what is more important is to talk about housing supply, to talk about supports for renters and to talk about affordability.
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Madam Chair, of course, there is more work to be done, but I just want to remind the hon. member that we have already invested over $228 million in Winnipeg, representing over 6,266 units. We are aware of the issue involving the sale of Lions Place, and we know that residents are concerned about it. We are committed to working with all the stakeholders to reach a conclusion.
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Madam Chair, we are the party in government that legislated the right to housing.
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Madam Chair, wow, that is the kind of over-the-top rhetoric and denial of the facts that will have the hon. member lose credibility on this issue. Is she saying $724 million over five years is not real money for women fleeing gender-based violence? Of course, there is more work to be done, but to say that we have not done anything is really unfair and inaccurate. We are doing a lot in this space a…
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Madam Chair, the hon. member would have us believe that investing $228 million to build over 6,200 housing units in Winnipeg is a pittance. Those are her words. We believe that we are delivering for provinces and territories. We are delivering for communities. We are delivering for vulnerable people. Of course, there is more work to be done, but to deny $228 million invested in Winnipeg for deeply…
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Madam Chair, we have not abandoned the most vulnerable in this country. In fact, we have doubled our investments in Reaching Home from just over $2 billion to almost $4 billion to support 5,000 projects and organizations across the country that are doing the work the hon. member is talking about. We are there. We will continue to be there and we are proud of that work.
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Madam Chair, of course, any Canadian that we lose to the overdose crisis in the country is real. Of course, we want to make sure that there is enough skilled labour to build the housing that Canadians need. We are doing everything that we can, through different measures, to make sure that this is the case. That also requires investments in local communities to make sure that more young people join…
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Madam Chair, the hon. member points out the challenge of access to safe and affordable housing that meets the needs of each and every Canadian. At the end of the day, different people in the housing spectrum have different types of needs. There is absolutely a need for more deeply affordable housing. That is why we are investing more federal resources into building more co-op housing, by investing…
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