Parliamentary Speeches

Mr. Speaker, we have a plan to deliver affordable housing. We are seeing it work, with 23 consecutive months of average rents going down across Canada, so families like the member opposite mentioned are saving money on their rent. They are also able to save money on the purchase of a new home. In Ontario alone, up to $200,000 can be saved on the purchase of a new home. Whether it is renting or buying, we are putting options on the table. These options have been opposed by the Conservatives. We are moving forward.

Mr. Speaker, the actions are clear. We are seeing the results. We have been seeing rents go down for 23 straight months. That does not happen by accident. That does not happen based on a plan that nobody has seen, nobody believes in and nobody voted for. We have an opportunity to build affordable housing on an unprecedented scale. We need every member of the House on board with that. We need to scale up and build Canada homes and affordable housing. We need to continue to see rents go down and see affordability for Canadians. That is what we are delivering.

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives keep flagging affordability concerns with respect to housing. We have great news to share on that. Average rents have come down for 23 straight months across Canada. That is a sign of success. Talk to developers across Canada right now. The apartment construction loan program is financing tens of thousands of rental homes. This is the biggest rental housing boom we have had in generations, and that is delivering affordable rents. We are making progress. We expect support from the other side of the House to get this done.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's highlighting the fact that the Canada groceries and essentials benefit is providing up to $1,900 to a family of four, which is very significant. Just as we are seeing rents come down, we are providing the opportunity for young Canadians to not pay GST on first-time home purchases. Whether it is housing, whether it is groceries or whether it is the price of gas, we are taking action. We hear nothing but complaining from the other side.

Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that we have challenges with housing across Canada. That has been the case for about 40 years. We have to build more affordable housing. That is what Build Canada Homes is focused on. It crossed the threshold of 19,000 homes under way in less than a year. We have seen really good success on the ground, with agreements right across the provinces and territories, agreements that are going to deliver affordable housing. In particular, they are going to deliver for young Canadians, with student housing, affordable rental housing for young people and attainable housing to get people into the market for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, that is precisely what the housing accelerator fund has been doing. It has been accelerating permitting and licensing, working in partnership with 241 cities and towns across Canada. We are seeing success with that accelerator program. Housing is getting built. Canada has averaged 250,000 homes a year, and that is not enough housing. We know it needs to grow. We need to do that in partnership with local governments and provinces. That is the work we are doing right now. We have an affordable housing agency in Build Canada Homes that is focused on making homes more affordable.

Mr. Speaker, it is good to be back in the House and to see my colleagues. We are absolutely focused on getting housing built for young Canadians and making sure they are not paying GST on their first-time home purchases. This is a move that was not supported by the Conservatives across the way, unfortunately. They should be consistent, at least. Rents are coming down across Canada. Average rents have been down for 23 straight months. Affordability is coming our way. We are focused on building more housing. Build Canada Homes is rolling it out at pace. We will continue to do so.

Mr. Speaker, CMHC also weighed in on the fact that the lowering of the development charges by this government in Ontario and B.C. is actually improving the prospects for housing supply in those provinces, and we are just getting started. There is a mix of housing starts across the country. Housing starts are up in critical markets such as Montreal and Vancouver. We need to see that across the country, and we are focused on affordability.

Mr. Speaker, just to be clear, this debate is about the housing supply act before the House, which is about $1.7 billion that would be distributed among the provinces and territories to boost housing supply. We already have an uptake on this with the province of Ontario. It was announced a few months ago. Ontario, thanks to the federal support that is tied to the bill, would be rebating the full 13% of the harmonized sales tax, the HST, on new homes up to $1 million. Buyers of those new homes up to $1 million could save up to $130,000. When we combine that with the initiative around reducing development charges, which is 30% to 50% with municipalities in Ontario and is administered by the province of Ontario, it is an additional up to $70,000. All this is in response to the crisis that Ontario, particularly the GTA, has had with the housing market. There is oversupply in the housing market and other challenges, such as uncertainty in the market, buyers not buying and builders not being able to move on projects. This is about getting the housing market going across the country, particularly in Ontario and B.C.

Mr. Speaker, we absolutely cannot forget about the important housing needs in smaller communities. Rural Canada faces many of the same challenges in terms of affordability and housing supply. Particularly in the north, housing supply is a huge challenge. Build Canada Homes is an agency focused on making sure the supply side is boosted, but in this case, the funding would be going to the provinces and territories. Ontario has given us the first example of what can be done. It is choosing to use its funding to effectively eliminate the HST for homebuyers throughout Ontario. It would benefit homebuyers and home builders, by extension, across all of Ontario, from urban to rural. Obviously that is a much-needed break on the HST for the homebuyers. That would be provided for in Ontario because of the housing supply bill.

Mr. Speaker, I am stumped by the actions we just saw in the House from Conservatives, trying to adjourn the House for the day. They just voted to adjourn the House, but fortunately a majority of us are here to do the work and continue with the business of the House. We voted that adjournment motion down. We welcome the debate, in the case of this bill, to advance the work on housing supply. Housing is in a crisis across Canada, and we need to make sure affordability is paramount. The bill is about investing $1.7 billion in provinces and territories to boost their housing supply. It is a very simple, straightforward bill. There have been hours of debate on it. We can contrast that opportunity for members to speak to the bill with what happened yesterday in the House, when the Conservative member for Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford filibustered for hours, preventing many other members from being able to speak in the debate in the House. I know there are lots of games being played around adjournment and filibustering. The bill is about getting funding to the people on the ground in our country who need affordable housing.

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to our predecessors here in the House, there is about 40 years of history of the Government of Canada's neglecting to invest enough in affordable housing. That is what has created the housing crisis today. It has been built up over decades by governments of all stripes. There have been lots of challenges from the local, provincial and territorial levels in not expediting and not approving housing. The challenges have mounted over many years. The government has now been elected to take action. That is what advancing the bill is about: to make sure we are investing, working collaboratively with provinces and territories to get housing built and to get the housing market going again. I know that the opposition housing critic has been very vocal about supporting getting the housing market going. Ontario and B.C. are two of the provinces that are really challenged on housing supply and market. We need to get this money invested on the ground as quickly as possible.

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-26 would be one tool in a large tool box that we need to activate to get the housing market turned around here in Canada, to get more affordable housing built, to make sure we have a healthy housing market and to make sure the homebuilding industry is innovating and advancing to make housing more affordable. This would be one tool in collaboration with the provinces and territories. It would be a direct investment, a transfer, and would give them the flexibility to apply it where needed. Ontario is choosing to eliminate its HST for this year, which I think is having a very positive effect on the market in Ontario. Other provinces and territories would have different approaches depending on their markets, but we have many other tools from Build Canada Homes and reaching home, which is supporting homelessness efforts, to the housing accelerator fund, which works with communities and local governments to cut red tape and get housing built. We have a wide array of tools. We need to continue scaling up the work on those tools, scaling up the investment that is needed to ensure that we have enough affordable housing being built, and to make sure that as a House we are here supporting the efforts and collaboration with all levels of government and the private sector.

Mr. Speaker, if the members of the opposition are so insistent on debate time, why did they just vote to adjourn the House in the middle of the day on a Tuesday? It does not add up. The bill is all about focusing on delivering results for the housing market, particularly in the member opposite's province, where I live too, B.C. The housing market in metro Vancouver is extremely challenged right now. The Province of B.C. would have the opportunity to deploy this funding to get the province's market going. That is an example. I think we have seen that already happen with Ontario as the first mover taking action to eliminate its HST. We need to get this funding out to communities. That is the priority. It is a very simple and straightforward bill about collaborating, investing in our provinces and territories and making sure that housing is built across Canada.

Mr. Speaker, I think we need to look at what is happening in the member opposite's province. Ontario has been first out of the gate, accepting this funding and deploying it to eliminate the HST, for which members opposite have been calling for months, to take action. I think both sides of the House agree we need to take action to get the housing market going in Ontario and B.C., where it has been stalled. This has done that in Ontario. Ontario is a good example of making a good choice to eliminate the HST for this year and prime the pump on its housing market. That is an example of what we want to see across the country. We would not be prescriptive with provinces and territories. We would be responsive to the needs across the country. We want to be sure that Ontario and B.C. markets are addressed, as they are in a state of relative crisis, but we want to have flexibility with this too. It is a very simple next step and a statement of collaboration with provinces and territories that we would entrust them to do the right thing and take action to deliver on housing.

Mr. Speaker, the investment in housing for first nations on reserve is something the Minister of Indigenous Services is responsible for. She currently has an indigenous housing process going to build a strategy, which I will be happy to collaborate with her on. There is indigenous housing funding as well in Build Canada Homes that is focused on urban, rural and northern indigenous housing, which is about a $4‑billion envelope. There are a number of different opportunities for indigenous housing. With this housing supply bill, we are talking about $1.7 billion to the provinces and territories, giving them the discretion to deploy that funding as needed. Some may choose to work with indigenous populations to invest that money on housing. That is their choice.

Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, on process, I have spoken to the urgency and simplicity of this bill in entrusting provinces and territories with taking action and deploying this funding to get housing supply scaled up in their jurisdictions. As we have seen with Ontario eliminating the HST, we already have a good example of what can be done. I think the collaboration piece is really critical here. We do rely upon provinces and territories. A member opposite had a question about building codes. There are attempts to harmonize on or to have a smoother flow for the supply chains for homebuilding materials, Canadian materials in particular, and for labour, workers and expertise across the country. We want the provinces and territories working on team Canada to get more housing built. I think it is really critical that, right now, we are investing across the board to facilitate more housing getting built and more interchange between provinces and territories to get that done.

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite well knows that I have appeared before HUMA a number of times to talk about the initiatives we have, as a government, to get affordable housing going, to get Build Canada Homes up and running as a Crown corporation so that it can drive the pace in getting affordable housing built. I have been at HUMA. I have been at other committees as well to make sure we are doing everything we can to advance the work on affordable housing. I will certainly be in front of HUMA again many more times as the housing minister. What we are talking about with this bill is advancing it so we can accelerate, so we can invest in the provinces and territories to get housing supply boosted across Canada right now. It is very simple and straightforward. Members opposite may not want to support investing in provinces and territories. They may not want to invest $1.7 billion in scaling up housing supply. This is an opportunity to say yes to that, and I encourage the members—

Mr. Speaker, again, I am a bit surprised to hear this commentary from the members opposite. We are in a housing crisis. We need to move urgently to solve this, to fix this. We need to work with our provinces and territories to do that. We rely on their leadership as well. It is a simple question: Does she support investing $1.7 billion, boosting housing supply with provinces and territories? The members opposite may not agree. It is a very simple next step to increase the federal government's investment in housing. This is what is before us right now. I encourage the members to support this so we can get this out as soon as possible and get housing built.

Mr. Speaker, well, I have a very simple question for the members opposite: Do they support working with the Government of Ontario to eliminate the HST for one year on new homes up to $1 million? This is exactly what Ontario is doing with the funding related to this housing supply bill. This is exactly what it is doing. It has committed the funding. If the members opposite support giving Ontarians a break on buying a new home up to $1 million, with $130,000 off $1 million, that is what the bill is all about. This is what Ontario is doing. If the Conservatives vote against the bill, they are voting against giving people in Ontario a break on buying a new home and giving home builders in Ontario an opportunity to get more active and make sure they are driving up supply in Ontario. That is what this is about.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member. The importance of getting this done is urgent. Really, the example in Ontario is what we are working with. It shows the difference this can make on the ground for the housing market, homebuyers and home builders in Ontario, who need to get going on building more supply. That is the result we are seeing already in Ontario. We met with developers over the last few weeks. The Prime Minister and I were told that we are seeing a 60% to 70% increase in sales volume here in Ottawa, and that is because of the Ontario HST elimination this year. Therefore, we are seeing a direct benefit of the Ontario partnership here. I expect we will see this with provinces and territories across the country as this funding is approved and deployed. This is about collaboration and a partnership of trust. It is about getting the money to the communities and the people, ultimately, so they can buy homes.

Mr. Speaker, I would say to the member opposite that we need to look at the Ontario example of how this funding is being used. The Ontario government has chosen to deploy it for eliminating the HST for this year to get its housing market going. Getting that housing market going by giving people a discount effectively on a new home is advancing the market. It is getting home builders back to building, because they know the market is coming back alive. I have heard from the members opposite that this has been a crisis, particularly in the GTA, that is related to the housing market. This is how the Ontario government, in partnership with us and resourced by this housing supply bill, is getting that market going and getting homebuyers into homes more affordably. We want to see that happen across the country. I know the provinces and territories have different approaches depending on their markets and their housing contexts. I am looking forward to seeing this deployed in B.C., in my home province, because the metro Vancouver market has very similar challenges to those of the GTA, and I want to see that change. We are receiving a lot of pressure from home builders who are concerned about the markets being flat. That is not surprising given the uncertainty in the world. This is a way to help jump-start and accelerate the markets and get more homes built.

moved: That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, Bill C-26, An Act to authorize certain payments to be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purpose of improving housing supply, be disposed of as follows: (a) the bill be ordered for consideration at the second reading stage immediately after the adoption of this order; (b) when the House begins debate at the second reading stage of the bill, one member of each recognized party, a member of the New Democratic Party, and the member of the Green Party, may each speak at the said stage for not more than 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for questions and comments, provided that members may be permitted to split their time with another member; (c) at the conclusion of the time provided for the debate at the second reading stage or when no member wishes to speak, whichever is earlier, all questions necessary to dispose of the second reading stage of the bill shall be put without further debate or amendment; (d) if the bill is adopted at the second reading stage, it shall be deemed referred to a committee of the whole, deemed considered in committee of the whole, deemed reported without amendment, deemed concurred in at report stage, and deemed read a third time and passed; and (e) during consideration of the bill, (i) after 8:30 p.m., no quorum calls, dilatory motions or requests for unanimous consent shall be received by the Chair, (ii) the House shall not adjourn, except pursuant to a motion moved by a minister of the Crown, (iii) no motion to adjourn the debate may be moved except by a minister of the Crown. Mr. Speaker, I rise to open the debate on Government Business No. 11 and to highlight the importance of Bill C-26, an act to authorize certain payments to be made out of the consolidated revenue fund for the purpose of improving housing supply. The motion would allow for the quick passage of Bill C-26, putting our government in a position to make payments to the provinces and territories, up to a total of $1.7 billion, to support efforts that improve the housing supply across Canada. It is a targeted measure designed to get funding quickly to the provinces and territories for measures that get homes built, including reducing development fees or levies on new home construction and making incremental investments in provincial and territorial programming already in place to spur housing developments. Far too many Canadians are struggling to find an affordable place to live. I believe every member of the House agrees that Canada is in a housing crisis. Solving that crisis requires a multitude of different tools and it requires immediate action. We need to bring down the costs, cut red tape, improve productivity and build more quickly. To meet the current and future housing needs of Canadians, we need to ensure that housing supply can keep pace with demand and that homes can be delivered at prices that are affordable for Canadians. I want to speak to the urgency of the motion and the need to move quickly on the motion and the legislation. We need to move quickly to solve Canada's housing challenges by bringing down the costs, as I said, cutting red tape and building homes at a faster pace. Bill C-26 has been designed to unlock housing supply across the country. The legislation would deliver a $1.7-billion federal investment to the provinces and territories to support measures that increase housing supply. These funds could, for example, help lower development fees or levies on new home construction, which are particularly significant in my home province of B.C. and in Ontario. They can also strengthen existing provincial and territorial programs that are already focused on building more homes through targeted, incremental investments. In addition, the federal investment can provide support for provincial and territorial efforts to streamline regulations and boost productivity across the home construction sector. Ontario's recent announcement of an HST rebate on new homes is a key example of how these transfers would improve supply. As part of tax relief efforts, the Ontario government, thanks to federal support tied to the bill, plans to rebate the full 13% harmonized sales tax in Ontario on new homes valued up to a million dollars, which would save buyers up to $130,000 on a new home at that $1-million price. It is clear that strong partnerships with the provinces, territories and local governments are essential to building more homes and improving housing affordability for Canadians. Proceeding swiftly with Bill C-26 through this motion would get get these funds to the provinces, and all of the work could continue across the country at pace. Last week, I spoke at the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, where I shared my own experience as a mayor. I remember asking the federal government for the investments and support my community needed. I remember the years spent trying to get Stephen Harper's Conservative government to recognize this growing problem. I remember their many refusals to even sit at the table, let alone collaborate on finding and implementing solutions. Today, things are different. Canada has a new government that is resolutely committed to taking action. Thanks to our government's investments, we are supporting the community infrastructure that people depend on every day, from community centres and recreational facilities to parks and cultural spaces. This includes new builds, expansions, renovations, retrofits, climate adaptations and project replacements. Simply put, it is impossible to build housing without the road and water infrastructure needed to support it. Rather than let our municipal partners shoulder these responsibilities alone or pass on the cost of this infrastructure to homebuyers, we are making essential investments through the Canada housing infrastructure fund and now through our historic new build communities strong fund. The result of these investments is real projects that will improve people's lives. Last April, we announced $25.9 million for water infrastructure in Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, enabling the construction of more than 29,000 homes. Last December, we announced $8.6 million for Charlottetown, P.E.I., to build the infrastructure needed to build up to 525 housing units. Just over a week ago, we announced our comprehensive partnership with the Government of Quebec on community, health and transportation infrastructure. Historic action is being taken to build stronger communities, with good neighbourhoods and homes people can afford. These investments are complemented further by the important work of Build Canada Homes. Since launching in September, Build Canada Homes has already advanced six direct-build projects in Dartmouth, Longueuil, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton, and secured six major partnerships with the City of Ottawa and the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and B.C., and a tripartite agreement with the Nunavut Housing Corporation and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. As a dedicated agency with a mandate to build affordable housing, Build Canada Homes is already doing important work to move thousands of new homes forward. We announced 1,100 new homes, including 700 supportive and transitional homes, to be built within the next 12 months, in B.C. just this last February. Build Canada Homes will build up to 750 homes across Nunavut in partnership with the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. Through the partnership with New Brunswick, we will accelerate the delivery of up to 1,200 shovel‑ready affordable homes, with the potential to scale up to 1,500 new homes in New Brunswick. A few weeks ago, we brought together both the build communities strong fund and Build Canada Homes by delivering approximately $350 million in housing and infrastructure investments in the Yukon. These are just a few examples of the partnerships and progress Build Canada Homes has accomplished in less than a year. Yesterday, this House passed Bill C‑20, the Build Canada Homes act, at third reading, taking us one step closer to turning Build Canada Homes into a Crown corporation, with even more tools to get more homes built. Whether it is through the build communities strong fund, Build Canada Homes or any of our other programs, now is the time to work together. Now is the time for all levels of government to get to the table and identify our priorities so that we can get building. We are in uncertain times, but when we work together, we can give ourselves more than anyone can take away. That is why our government is taking action on these different fronts across the housing spectrum, reducing barriers, investing in housing-enabled infrastructure and catalyzing a more productive homebuilding sector. Bill C‑26 is an important tool within this broader effort. The reality is that housing needs differ from region to region, and our response must be just as nuanced and targeted. The barriers faced in a fast-growing urban centre, like my home city of Vancouver, are very different from those in smaller or more remote communities. What Vancouver needs versus what Iqaluit, Chicoutimi or rural Canada needs generally differs significantly. Bill C‑26 reflects this reality by giving the provinces and territories the flexibility to find solutions that are best suited to the regional challenges that may impede housing supply and would best meet the housing needs of those jurisdictions. By empowering the provinces and territories to direct funding where it can be most impactful in addressing the housing supply barriers, we can help ensure that these federal investments align with the on-the-ground realities. This federal funding would be transferred to provinces and territories with the understanding that it will be used exclusively for measures that increase housing supply. For instance, this could include but is not limited to reducing development fees or levies on new home construction. The funding could be used on new home construction. The funding could also be used to make incremental investments in provincial or territorial programming already in place to spur housing developments. Ontario's HST announcement on March 25 of this year is an example of how these transfers could help home supply in Ontario. The key element here is partnership, which is also central to our broader housing approach. Strong collaboration among all levels of government, with indigenous partners and with non-profit organizations and private industry is needed to address the housing challenges that we face across Canada. Provinces and territories are well placed to determine how federal support can augment their provincial and territorial efforts to unlock additional supply across different regions, and Bill C‑26 would help enable that effort. We are already seeing the effectiveness of partnerships. On March 23, the Prime Minister announced a partnership with Ontario to reduce development charges and support new housing supply, demonstrating how that collaboration can directly lower costs and accelerate building. As I outlined earlier, the federal government is also working with provinces, territories and indigenous partners to deliver more homes, affordable homes, through Build Canada Homes and the build communities strong fund. These examples show what is possible when the Government of Canada works together with provinces, territories, local governments, indigenous groups and other key partners. Bill C‑26's approach complements the broader work that is already under way to increase housing supply across Canada. We are bringing partners together, aligning these efforts and ensuring that every dollar contributes to faster, more effective housing delivery. This bill is tailor-made to meet those needs, but I also want to take a moment to talk about other important programs. As I noted, our government is taking action to support building across the housing spectrum. The work of Build Canada Homes to scale up the supply of affordable housing nationwide is in full swing now. Other measures like targeted tax relief, such as removing the 5% GST on new purpose‑built rental construction, are lowering upfront costs and helping move projects forward. Programs like the apartment construction loan program and the CMHC mortgage loan insurance products, MLI select being a great example, help builders secure financing. These programs are very significant across Canada. They are more on the market side of housing, but they are certainly enabling historic levels of rental housing to be built right across the country. The apartment construction loan program is making needed capital available to make more apartment projects financially viable and get shovels in the ground. That is the key piece, particularly in these uncertain times. Recently, in the spring economic update, we announced that we would be kicking this program into even higher gear, accelerating over $7 billion in low‑cost financing to speed up rental home construction even further. The housing accelerator fund is also a program that helps unlock supply, reducing barriers, reducing red tape and speeding up approvals at the local level. We have 241 housing accelerator fund agreements that were signed with local governments, and they are delivering tens of thousands of homes on pace that would not have been seen otherwise. To conclude, right now there is momentum like never before to deliver on the housing issue, but we cannot do it alone. Our success relies on working together to tackle the housing crisis from every angle and deliver results for Canadians. By enabling targeted, flexible funding and reinforcing collaboration across provinces and territories, Bill C‑26 would help to ensure that we are not just investing more but investing smarter, together. This is how we will deliver the homes that Canadians need. This is how we will create more prosperous, resilient communities. This is how we will build Canada strong.

Mr. Speaker, as I said in my remarks, we are in an affordable housing crisis across Canada. Canadians expect us to take action and deliver in every way possible. For the last two days, Conservatives have been moving motions to shut down this House early and to send us home for the summer, with hours of work left to do and hours of debate left on important legislation like this that would deliver affordable housing for Canadians. If the Conservatives are interested in a longer process, more time for debate and circuitous routes that take forever to deliver for Canadians, that will not be supported by this side of the House. We want to see action taken. We want to see partnerships advanced with provinces and territories, and investment in new affordable housing.

Mr. Speaker, we have been very transparent in all of our housing funding allocations and our partnerships. In particular with Quebec, we have an unprecedented partnership on housing through Build Canada Homes. We are contributing funding from the federal level in partnership and at a collaboration table with Quebec to get affordable housing built, including supportive and transitional housing, which is a big priority for many communities and for the province of Quebec, to help solve homelessness. This would be an additional investment that could be made to provinces and territories, obviously including Quebec, to get them funding to take next levels of action. As I mentioned, there are many tools that we need to bring forward. This is one that needs to be expedited.

Mr. Speaker, having served for a decade at the local government level in both the city of Vancouver and the metro Vancouver regional government, I am obviously very familiar with the challenges faced not only on the housing front, but also in the relationships with the provinces and territories and the federal government. Historically, it has been very difficult for cities to work with other levels of government. That is why we are in the predicament we are in with housing. Cities have a critical role to play, but in years past, certainly in my years as mayor, there was not direct support. A program like the housing accelerator fund did not exist, nor were there transfers or investments that enabled the cities to take action and build, nor were there adequate programs through the provinces and territories. In this case, we are working with all of these partners, collaborating and investing at historic levels, and we want to make sure that collaboration creates affordable housing.

Mr. Speaker, I was surprised to see the member and members on the other side of the House oppose the Build Canada Homes act at third reading yesterday. This is an agency that will be 100% focused on delivering affordable housing in Canada. We have never had that before. With respect to the rationale, as the housing minister, I will be responsible for the Crown corporation, as I am for the special operating agency currently. The special operating agency has very limited tools to do financing and land acquisition and to expedite bringing on human resources to get more housing built. The Crown corporation structure will get more housing built in the long run, and that is the goal overall. It is accountable to Parliament through the minister, so I see it as a very significant advancement for getting affordable housing built. In this case, with Bill C-26, funding would also go to provinces and territories to enable and expedite the—

Mr. Speaker, I just want to clarify to the member opposite that the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report related to Build Canada Homes was very much focused on Build Canada Homes, not on all of the tools that government has to get housing built, most of which reside within the national housing strategy and related programs. Build Canada Homes is at far beyond the number stated, with probably triple that right now in the pipeline for the construction of affordable housing. There are many other programs. This initiative with Bill C-26 would get additional funding to provinces and territories and would expedite it to make sure they will have more tools and more opportunities, as Ontario has done, as an example, to bring down its HST and make it more affordable for homebuyers to buy homes of up to $1 million. It is helping Canadians get into their first homes. For first-time homebuyers, it is another opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for those concerns. We have to get more supportive and transitional housing built, in particular for our most vulnerable Canadians. That is a big focus of Build Canada Homes. We want to see this funding expedite housing like that, and we need to not only do what Ontario is doing with the HST, but focus on the most affordable housing, first and foremost. We will be doing that.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Peterborough for her great work in the community. Yesterday was a great day for affordable housing. Despite the opposition of members opposite, who are against affordable housing, the government passed the Build Canada Homes act here in the House. This brings us one step closer to getting affordable housing built. Build Canada Homes will become a Crown corporation with the support of the Senate. We are looking forward to working with our senators to secure the bill's final passage and get Build Canada Homes up and running and delivering affordable—

Mr. Speaker, as a British Columbian like the member opposite, I will say that people in B.C. are optimistic about our future, like we are on this side of the House. We see major projects coming to B.C. that are going to boost our economy in B.C. We see rents coming down. We see affordability coming back to the table. We see benefits to British Columbians that the other side of the House has opposed every step of the way, whether to our youth or to our young workers. We are interested in taking action right across the country to support Canadians, grow the economy and deliver affordability, not being stuck in the mud.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to Build Canada Homes, we are putting in place new tools to accelerate housing construction, leverage public land and support innovative constructive methods. Today, the House has the opportunity to support the bill on Build Canada Homes, and I encourage all members to vote in favour of this important measure to help us build more affordable housing in communities across Canada.

Madam Speaker, the housing crisis has been decades in the making. It goes back to the federal government not taking enough action to build affordable housing and non-market housing. It goes back at least to the nineties, and arguably before that. Governments of all stripes take responsibility; governments at all levels or orders across Canada as well. Certainly, there are challenges at the local level. I served at the local level. There are challenges in approving enough, approving fast enough and approving a balanced mix with non-market. Non-market housing needs the support of provincial and federal governments. There has to be investment in that. Build Canada Homes is an excellent vehicle to fast-track, and attract private capital to, non-market housing and the affordable housing spectrum.

Madam Speaker, costs do vary significantly across the country, certainly in the member opposite's riding and in the territories. The good news is that we have agreements now with Quebec to build, with Build Canada Homes, hundreds and hundreds of homes throughout Quebec in partnership with Quebec. As well, there are examples in Nunavut: 750 homes with the territorial Government of Nunavut and with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the housing corporation in Nunavut that is Inuit-controlled. We have opportunities to build with provinces and territories where the cost is significantly higher. This affords an opportunity also to empower the manufacturing industry and get components of housing or volumetric housing to those remote territories and provinces. We see manufacturers now starting to set up in many parts of Canada to bring more efficiency to the farther regions out and bring those costs down as well.

Madam Speaker, to the point of collaboration, we have seen fantastic uptake from provinces and territories. I mentioned Quebec moments ago and Nunavut. We have a partnership with B.C. to build 1,100 new affordable homes and 700 of those are supportive and transitional homes for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are in partnership with Build Canada Homes for more than 1,000 homes. Right out of the gate, we have agreements with provinces and territories; Yukon and Nunavut are examples, as are Ontario and Quebec. We have opportunities to build in every province and territory right now, and existing agreements are in place. That speaks to that collaboration. I think we are seeing the interest and the uptake. It is not only from different levels of government, like the City of Ottawa, but also from the private sector.

Madam Speaker, I would ask the member to walk across the floor. I would be happy for him to come over and talk. We are here in Ottawa all the time. If he wants to be more bureaucratic and send emails, there is that, but I am here. I am here to talk about this. We are here to get housing built. That is the goal. I have certainly been approached and had conversations with many members on both sides of the House. I am certainly willing to focus on getting housing built in all the communities across Canada.

Madam Speaker, there are challenging costs related to shipping anything to remote regions of Canada, and that is factored into the cost. Build Canada Homes has to factor that in when it is putting together these partnerships with provinces and territories, or with community builders in various regions around the country. The benefit of shipping manufactured components or volumetric homes is that is all that is being shipped: We are not shipping extra materials that are cut off and then turned into waste. Construction waste is the number one source of waste in solid waste landfills. We need to reduce the amount of waste in the industry, and we can do that with shipping. We have to factor in that cost. Ideally, we need to employ as many local people as we can for the assembly or installation of these homes.

Madam Speaker, we see great leadership from New Brunswick, not only with respect to the 1,500 homes that are now in the works, between Build Canada Homes and New Brunswick, but also on the manufacturing side. It is one of the leading provinces in manufacturing homes and components of buildings and homes. That is where we see the future. Certainly, New Brunswick can produce for other Atlantic provinces as well, and ship within the region, but we are seeing that opportunity with manufacturing emerging in many other parts of the country. We are also seeing opportunities, like with New Brunswick's model, where there are a lot of smaller projects in rural communities in New Brunswick that are being coordinated by New Brunswick as a province, the housing minister and his team. That is a fantastic model for getting a lot of different types of projects, small, medium and large, built across the province. We hope to see that in many other provinces and territories.

Madam Speaker, as the member said, we are not building affordable homes fast enough. That is why we need to have Build Canada Homes as a Crown corporation, with all of the tools, financial instruments and accountability to make sure we can build faster from the federal side. We need to have these partnerships in place. We need to make it easier for the private sector to build. We need to make sure it is faster for the cities, provinces, territories and indigenous governments to get housing built. We need to be an enabler or a catalyst. We certainly rely primarily on the private sector to do the actual construction and building. All levels of government need to be coordinated to make sure it is easier and faster to get affordable housing built.

Madam Speaker, I thank the member opposite for his questions and his concerns. Build Canada Homes will be the federal government agency to deliver affordable housing. CMHC will focus on market housing. There will be two agencies right now, CMHC on the market side and Build Canada Homes on the non-market side, that will be focused on housing. The Canada Lands Company, which has been involved in housing development for the federal government, is effectively folding into Build Canada Homes with the portfolio of federal lands where affordable housing can be built. That is one component. It is basically that we are going to two agencies. One is affordable housing-focused, non-market, and the second, CMHC, continues to provide support for market housing, the apartment construction loan program, the MLI select program and the research that the member opposite is discussing, which is valuable across the board for the whole housing continuum.

Madam Speaker, we have seen enormous uptake among the non-profit or community housing builders. I think a majority of the proposals coming into Build Canada Homes are from the community building sector and non-profits partnering with the private sector, which will do a lot of the construction and building. Those homes will be effectively operated by the non-profit sector, because they are affordable homes. In particular, I want to speak to the great uptake we have seen with transitional and supportive housing. The most important solution right now for homelessness is making sure people have access to a home that has the wraparound supports. We have a couple of thousand homes now in the works in partnership across the country for that supportive housing.

Madam Speaker, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, CMHC, will continue to focus on the market side of the housing continuum, and that is from rental housing to the mortgage insurance products it has provided for generations. It can specialize in that, and Build Canada Homes can specialize in affordable housing. We think it is important to have this separation between the two. They are very different lines of business, with very different partnerships that get put together with the provinces, territories and cities on the affordable housing side. The example of Quebec's partnership illustrates the opportunity that provinces and territories see in partnering with Build Canada Homes to get the homes delivered, and get them delivered with affordability at the core.

Madam Speaker, the target is to build as much affordable housing as possible with the capital that is being provided here by the Government of Canada. There is an array of partnerships and collaborations now. There are different levels of affordability, as the member knows as a former mayor. There are projects that have deeply affordable supportive and transitional housing. Those require more investment from government, more support in terms of an equity investment to achieve that level of affordability. There is a mix of affordable rentals in many projects as well. As for setting random large targets to shoot for, we want to see the maximum amount of housing delivered. We want to see as much affordability as possible. That is the core goal for Build Canada Homes. We want to also leverage opportunity across affordable rental housing and co-op housing. We want to see a whole range of housing in the middle market, the so-called missing middle, delivered alongside that. It is a range of different types of projects, with different affordability, but we want to see all of that maximized for the benefit of Canadians.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member's concern around softwood. We see enormous opportunity with Build Canada Homes to focus on building with Canadian wood. That would benefit our industries from B.C. to Quebec and New Brunswick, provinces that rely heavily on softwood and forestry. We have real opportunities to scale up the value-added industry and make sure we are protecting jobs with softwood here in Canada. Buy Canadian is a key element with Build Canada Homes. That has gone into the investment criteria. We are seeing proposals come in that would use Canadian wood to build. We want to see, in the manufacturing sector, mass timber and value-added products built with Canadian wood. That is our focus with Build Canada Homes, making sure we do everything we can to use Canadian materials, to strengthen Canadian homebuilding and manufacturing, right into the forest industry. I am working in collaboration with the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources to make sure we are maximizing that opportunity and supporting that industry.

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her leadership on behalf of New Brunswick. Like the members of Parliament from New Brunswick, we are very encouraging of Build Canada Homes and New Brunswick partnering to maximize the opportunity to build affordable housing across New Brunswick. The Government of New Brunswick has been a leader, as the member said, in being one of the first provinces to step forward. As I mentioned earlier, with the opportunity to build in communities of all shapes and sizes, the province has put together projects across New Brunswick. It is bringing that portfolio forward and will help manage the delivery of that housing, which is fantastic. It makes it much more streamlined for Build Canada Homes to be able to invest, knowing that the province is overseeing that portfolio, and many communities are being served at the same time. I give a big thanks to New Brunswick for leading the way on that and to the members for supporting that.

Madam Speaker, certainly, indigenous housing is a really important component of what Build Canada Homes is delivering and will continue to deliver. The floor for investment in indigenous housing in Build Canada Homes is 10% of the capital there for affordable housing. There are many proposals coming in from indigenous home builders. We look forward to seeing Build Canada Homes supporting projects. There is a huge opportunity. We saw this in the Nunavut and Yukon territories, where the majority of the population is indigenous. That housing will obviously be delivered by the territorial governments, but it will benefit indigenous residents. We are going to see a lot of proposals and partnerships with first nations and Inuit and Métis people as well.