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Mr. Chair, I just outlined that the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund is for the prevention of these disasters and there is more resilient infrastructure to prevent future problems.
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Mr. Chair, Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada utilizes different funding models to meet specific goals and outcomes. While, in some cases, there are allocations that are based on population, the department also deploys competitive and merit-based models, or even combined funding models, depending on what outcomes are sought. Needs for the different types of infrastructure vary across t…
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Mr. Chair, I neglected to congratulate the member on her election and her constituents for electing her here to do the good work on behalf of Oakville. As with me, she is new in the House. The federal government has a responsibility to taxpayers to ensure that their money produces results, and that means we work with the provinces, territories, local governments and third parties directly, dependi…
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Mr. Chair, Canada is grappling with significant housing challenges. Housing needs vary across the country, depending on province, territory or neighbourhoods, and they are very distinct to those local needs. A collaborative approach is needed to address the current housing crisis where all the levels of government are participating. Housing and infrastructure are intertwined. They go hand in hand.…
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Mr. Chair, resilient infrastructure does not just make good economic sense, it is critical to keeping Canadians and our communities safe. That is why we have committed almost $4 billion, through programs such as the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund, the infrastructure Canada investment program and the national infrastructure fund, to help mitigate and adapt infrastructure to the impacts of …
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Mr. Chair, Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada acknowledges the infrastructure gap in many indigenous communities that needs to be addressed. To help address that, we have many supports in our programming to ensure that indigenous communities can benefit from our programs. For example, programs have funding minimums that are dedicated to indigenous communities: higher cost shares, somet…
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Mr. Chair, the department has several programs that will benefit rural, remote and indigenous communities and organizations that consider their unique needs. Examples are programs that integrate flexibilities, such as rolling intakes for smaller communities, and flexibility for indigenous recipients. Our program officials work very closely with the potential recipients to provide application suppo…
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Mr. Chair, I thank the member for his question. I will answer in English. In terms of how many we are building, currently, 220,000 homes a year, approximately, is the pace.
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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, 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, 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, I think Canadians generally agree on the definition of affordable housing as being less than 30% of one's income, but there are certainly more specific affordability targets built into various programs that CMHC and the department have that are very focused on what those programs can deliver.
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Mr. Chair, it is really about the cost of housing, the household operations, relative to household income. That does change depending on the projects and the programs. That is why there are some different definitions depending on the projects or the programs.
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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, the overdose crisis is a terrible tragedy across Canada. Certainly, we felt that from the very beginning of it, a decade ago in Vancouver, when the emergency was declared.
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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, we are here to focus on budget estimates for the Department of Housing and Infrastructure.
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Mr. Chair, again, we are here to talk about the budget estimates for the Department of Housing and Infrastructure, and I welcome the member's questions. It is about $16 billion of taxpayer money that is focused on housing and infrastructure.
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Mr. Chair, I will say that no single elected official is responsible for the prices in the housing market, and the federal government needs to do everything it can to bring the overall cost of housing down across—
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Mr. Chair, again to the member opposite, I am here to talk about the budget estimates for the Department of Housing and Infrastructure. I would remind the member to keep us focused on the budget estimates.
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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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