Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians elected this new government to double construction and to make it more affordable across the country, and that is what we are going to deliver. We are focused on delivering tax breaks on GST and income tax. We are focused on lowering development costs. We are focused on delivering for Canadians with respect to affordability across housing, and we expect the members opposite …
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Mr. Speaker, as the member opposite will know, there are monthly fluctuations to the housing starts across Canada, and there is really good news in the CMHC report. We are on an annual pace of almost 280,000 housing starts this year, which is almost a record, and we will not stop there. We are focused on doubling housing starts in this country over the next decade, and we will stick to that goal.
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Mr. Speaker, I will caution the member on using inaccurate facts. I will be following all the rules even before they are required, and these are some of the rules that the Conservatives themselves brought in under former prime minister Harper. Liberals will work with the office of the Ethics Commissioner to ensure transparency, and I will continue to demonstrate integrity in my role as minister. M…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to speak strongly in support of the housing accelerator program, which has over 200 agreements with communities across Canada. The members opposite can keep criticizing and insulting their city councils and mayors, but they are going to deliver on this housing. Month-to-month statistics fluctuate, but overall we are seeing housing starts up this year, which is great, and we are…
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Well, Mr. Speaker, I hope the member opposite is supportive of the work we are doing here to give first-time homebuyers, young Canadians, an opportunity, discounting their purchase price by up to $50,000 in GST relief. It is a significant effort, along with the tax cut for 22 million Canadians that makes life more affordable and enables them to access housing, and we will not stop there.
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Mr. Speaker, I will direct the member opposite to talk with the Kelowna mayor and council about what they think about the housing accelerator program, which hundreds of mayors and councils across the country have asked their own members of Parliament on the Conservative side to support, because they want this program. They want support to scale the housing they build in their communities, and we w…
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Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that we have challenges with housing across the country on affordability. The good news is that we are seeing near-record-level housing starts this year. Members can cherry-pick month-to-month stats. This year, 280,000 starts is the pace we are on right now, and we need to go farther and faster. That is why we are delivering on development cost charge reductions that…
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Mr. Chair, the goal across Canada for us is to build more homes and to be ramping up to doubling the current rate.
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Mr. Chair, approximately 225,000 units were built in the last year.
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Mr. Chair, I would be happy to provide the member with the detailed data on that as soon as possible.
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Mr. Chair, our focus is on building affordable housing. The MLI select program is working right now. We are going to focus on building more affordable housing.
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Mr. Chair, I understood the member's question to be whether rural areas are served by this program. That is correct.
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Mr. Chair, I think the general definition of affordable is that it is less than 30% of people's income.
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Mr. Chair, I am proud of the work the Vancouver affordable housing agency did in catalyzing thousands of units across the city. That is why I am focused now, here in the federal government, on delivering on behalf of all of Canada.
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Mr. Chair, I think the member opposite has the facts all wrong. He can check the City of Vancouver website for data on the affordable housing delivered.
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Mr. Chair, I am sure the member already has the answer to the question being asked, or he would not be asking it.
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Mr. Chair, I would say, whether it is Hamilton or Vancouver, we need to bring the overall cost of housing down and do that by building affordable housing.
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Mr. Chair, that is not affordable to many Canadians. That is why we need to build more affordable housing and look for the support from the members opposite.
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Mr. Chair, across the country, we need to be able to see rents come down for Canadians. I am sure that is the case in Hamilton, as it is in many cities across Canada.
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Mr. Chair, it all depends on people's income, but for most Canadians, that is a challenge. That is why I hope the member will support us with our new housing plan.
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Mr. Chair, the housing accelerator has agreements with over 200 communities across Canada that will unlock over 800,000 homes in the future.
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Mr. Chair, the housing accelerator fund has invested $4.4 billion to eliminate the barriers to development and build homes faster.
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Mr. Chair, on this side of the House, we are very committed to transparency. We will be tracking and working with the local governments to see how they are progressing on delivering the housing units they are rezoning for.
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Mr. Chair, I have outlined the scale of investment that is happening through this department. We are talking about $16 billion of hard-working Canadians' money that is being invested in affordable housing and infrastructure. We hope to have the member's support for that.
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Mr. Chair, I am clear that the members opposite have not supported any of these affordable housing programs in recent years. I hope, based on these questions, that there is going to be a change of approach here, and the members opposite will support scaling up these investments in affordable housing.
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Mr. Chair, certainly we are looking forward to leveraging federal lands, going forward, to get a lot more housing built across Canada. Part of “build Canada homes” is to use federal lands. In this case, most of those units under development currently will be delivered in the years ahead.
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Mr. Chair, I am certainly looking forward to speeding this process up. The idea with “build Canada homes” is that all the different departments and agencies of government are working in unison to deliver affordable housing across the country, leveraging federal land.
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Mr. Chair, I am buoyed by this interest in “build Canada homes”. Certainly, on this side of the House, we want to make sure this effort is quick and nimble. We are focused on building these affordable homes as soon as possible, using all the tools of government.
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Mr. Chair, I am certainly aware of this, and our department works with Canada Lands in some cases, to help with the development. We look forward to doing a lot more of that in the future.
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Mr. Chair, I think there is an opportunity to build affordable housing across the country, and there are many different tools needed to do that. Certainly, Canada Lands Company manages an inventory of lands and does some building activity there. CMHC does a lot of finance and mortgage work, but there remain gaps in the system to scale up the affordable housing we need to deliver.
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Mr. Chair, we are going to be focused on building in partnership with all levels of government, and with the public and private sectors and non-profit developers as well. We need a broad set of partnerships here. I am not talking about more bureaucracy; I am talking about great partnerships and more support for affordable housing.
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Mr. Chair, I think we have seen good success now with the housing accelerator fund and giving incentives to local governments, mayors and their councils to—
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Mr. Chair, we have housing accelerator fund agreements with over 200 communities in cities across Canada, and we are working on advancing those partnerships to deliver results.
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Mr. Chair, yes, there are ongoing discussions, certainly, on both housing and infrastructure, with the Government of Quebec.
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Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her question. I will answer in English. Affordability is defined as less than 30% of someone's income after taxes. That is the measure of all the shelter affordability, the cost related to housing, utilities, mortgage and rent payments, etc. That is the general guideline for affordability that gets applied to projects across government.
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Mr. Chair, we will stand by the affordability definitions as they have been applied, but the focus with “build Canada homes” going forward is going to be on doubling the amount of affordable housing. We have heard the Prime Minister speak very clearly about the need to focus that funding on solving homelessness, and the most vulnerable in our population will need that support. Members on this side…
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Mr. Chair, we will certainly be working with Canada Lands Company to ensure we can maximize the amount of affordable housing that we can build on federal lands. There is a big opportunity to increase the affordability and the opportunity for people to get deeper affordability on federal land.
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Mr. Chair, the government has had significant success in working in partnership with the Quebec government. I note that we have, through the national housing strategy, 365 projects in Quebec, worth over $3 billion, with over 26,000 units. Other programs as well are contributing significantly, with the Quebec government in the lead.
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Mr. Chair, we are seeing a great uptake with the housing accelerator fund. Quebec has worked with the federal government to the tune of almost $1 billion, and 26,000 units of affordable housing are the target. We will work to support the Quebec government to deliver on those housing targets.
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Mr. Chair, I agree with the member that it is very important that there is a combination of housing funding, which we see with the national housing strategy as well as the housing accelerator fund. We are also looking at partnership on housing infrastructure with the Quebec government, and those are active discussions that are in play right now.
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Mr. Chair, I certainly agree with the member on the importance of putting housing first and well ahead of investment. That has certainly been a concern in my community. Measures were taken by both the city and the province to make sure that investment does not skew the housing market any more than it already has. We look forward to partnerships with Quebec to achieve that same goal.
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Mr. Chair, we are looking at a very significant doubling of housing. The investment in homelessness in particular is what is envisioned with “build Canada homes”, which I hope the member and her colleagues will support. That is the kind of scale we need to tackle homelessness across Canada and certainly in Quebec. We will be looking at doubling the resources that go into homelessness.
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Mr. Chair, I think the partnership between the federal government and Quebec has been delivering, with respect and with speed, on the housing front. My expectation is that we will continue that partnership very strongly, to deliver results on the ground with affordable housing.
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Mr. Chair, when I first became mayor, it was a Conservative federal government. For seven years, it was all but impossible to get any investment from the federal government on homelessness and affordable housing. We fought the federal government at the time—
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Mr. Chair, I am certainly thankful to be elected by my constituents in Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby. I am here to represent my province as well. With my knowledge from serving at the city and provincial levels, I will do all I can to deliver positive change and a lot of affordable housing in our home province.
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Mr. Chair, again, the member opposite is veering off into misinformation that has been spread by his party relentlessly, twisting around proven science and Supreme Court decisions that defended the actions of the city.
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Mr. Chair, as my colleague just stated, the B.C. government is responsible for the decision. BC Ferries is a Crown agency of the B.C.government.
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Mr. Chair, it is an issue of B.C. jurisdiction, and in Canada, we respect jurisdiction among federal, provincial, territorial, local and indigenous governments. We work in partnership, but this is the B.C. government's jurisdiction.
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Mr. Chair, the member opposite needs to be a little more specific about what transfer she is speaking of.
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Mr. Chair, Canada will be more competitive when we focus on one Canadian economy: all 13 of our provinces and territories with the federal government, working in partnership on major projects and building housing across this country.
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