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Mr. Chair, while I am curious as to whether the members opposite blame the mayor of Nanaimo for that housing price increase, or perhaps the premier of B.C., in this House, we all need to take responsibility for building affordable housing.
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Mr. Chair, there are two parts to this. One is to build the strongest economy in the G7 and raise incomes. The other is to focus on building affordable housing.
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Mr. Chair, it is very difficult right now for people to afford to buy homes in Canada, and that is why we have to focus on affordable supply.
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Mr. Chair, the focus here needs to be on increasing supply across Canada. Building affordable homes people of all walks of life can afford, with less than 30% of their income, is our goal.
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Mr. Chair, our focus with “build Canada homes” will be on tackling homelessness and investing in the most affordable housing we can for people who are homeless.
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Mr. Chair, we are the Government of Canada. We need to send the signal and deliver on the action to build more homes across Canada that are affordable.
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Mr. Chair, on my side of the House, we are focused on partnering with mayors, at all levels of government, as partners delivering affordable housing, not on insulting them.
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Mr. Chair, I will remind the members opposite that they have not supported a single affordable housing initiative over the past decade. That was at a time when the federal government needed to deliver more and more, working in partnership with provinces, territories and communities.
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Mr. Chair, this government is currently delivering hundreds of thousands of affordable homes across Canada, and we will scale that up. We will double that.
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Mr. Chair, I am thankful for this opportunity to share some remarks and thankful to my colleague for giving me the space to do that. I am very pleased to be here and to have the opportunity to discuss the 2025-26 main estimates for the Department of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, and how these investments are supporting Canadians across the country. Housing and public infrastructure have…
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Mr. Chair, I will respond in English. That is a very important question about making sure young people have the opportunity to find affordable housing across Canada. I will reference the largest, most ambitious housing plan that Canada has ever seen. We will see it take shape around “build Canada homes”, a new entity that will focus on scaling up construction and the building of affordable housing…
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Mr. Chair, it has been a challenging time across Canada for decades. Certainly, in Vancouver during my time as mayor, we were at the very front end of what has become a housing crisis across Canada. The lack of affordability has permeated the country over several decades. That is why, with this new government, part of the reason I am standing here, elected by my constituents, is to bring out the l…
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Mr. Chair, having one Canadian economy is really essential to meeting this moment, this great time of challenge for Canada with the unjust tariffs from the U.S. Housing is critical to our economy, and we need to scale up the housing industry across Canada to create jobs. We need to use Canadian materials and create the jobs that will turn our economy and make it stronger—
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Mr. Chair, housing prices are historically high in Canada, and incomes need to be increased with a stronger economy.
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Mr. Chair, the member is asking questions he already knows the answer to, but it has been Liberal governments for three terms.
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Mr. Chair, again, the members opposite are asking questions that they have prepared and know the answers to.
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Mr. Chair, I believe that the member has the answer to that question, so he can answer it for himself.
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Mr. Chair, home prices have skyrocketed, and that is why we need to be building affordable housing across Canada.
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Mr. Chair, what matters to me is building more affordable housing, and members on this side of the House will put all efforts into that.
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Mr. Chair, homes need to be for living in; they need to be for residents and not investors.
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Mr. Chair, investment is secondary to people's living in homes. We need to build homes that people live in, not invest in.
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Mr. Chair, I think the focus here needs to be on building homes for people to live in, not building homes for investors to own.
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Mr. Chair, I am here to answer questions on behalf of my department for the investment in affordable housing across Canada, and infrastructure and housing.
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Mr. Chair, “build Canada homes” is going to focus on building affordable housing across Canada at a scale that is unprecedented.
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Mr. Chair, at this stage, we are designing the future for “build Canada homes”. It is not an entity that exists yet, but I hope the members opposite will support the investment to scale affordable housing—
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Mr. Chair, we have delivered a $50,000 savings to first-time homebuyers already with votes in the House, and we will continue to deliver affordability measures.
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Mr. Chair, I welcome the member. Infrastructure investments in the department are typically through provinces and territories, and their priorities are part of where that spending goes. Some of that is into roads. It is into all sorts of different infrastructure: water, waste water and transportation infrastructure.
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Mr. Chair, transportation infrastructure is a part of the housing infrastructure investment that happens through the department, working in partnership with provinces, territories and local governments that lay out the planning in the community scale.
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Mr. Chair, with reference to roads and highways that have received funding over the past decade, more than 58,000 kilometres of roads and highways have received funding from the department.
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Mr. Chair, there have been many more homes than that built across Canada, in part with funding from the department.
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Mr. Chair, the department has funded, through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, hundreds of thousands of homes in these recent years. The scale is significant, and it needs to double from here.
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Mr. Chair, the department funds provinces, territories and local governments to help them in the process of building. The government is not directly building, but we should be in the business of that going forward to make sure affordable housing is getting built.
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Mr. Chair, the target around doubling housing construction in Canada is for the years to come. We need to scale up from the current level. The goal is to double construction across Canada, and we will use every tool we have available to us to do that.
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Mr. Chair, we want all Canadians to have access to safe and secure housing. Certainly the younger generation needs more opportunities to afford homes; that is why we are doing the doubling of construction across the country.
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Mr. Chair, that is not part of the current estimates, the budget estimates we are discussing here today. That is a commitment going forward that the government will tackle, and it hopes to have support on it from the members opposite.
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Mr. Chair, as said, we need to use every tool we can that is available to us. Certainly, federal land is an opportunity, working with partners.
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Mr. Chair, I am not clear how this has anything to do with the Housing and Infrastructure department.
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Mr. Chair, the BC Ferries investment is not part of the ministry's estimates.
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Mr. Chair, I can get the member that detailed answer shortly. I do not have it at my fingertips, but I can do that.
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Mr. Chair, the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund has already provided almost $3 billion in support across Canada to—
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Mr. Chair, the typical coverage across the country is per capita, but there are variations in that depending on the province and certainly the issues, the disasters.
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Mr. Chair, for this time period, $643.8 million is the amount that is put forward for the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund.
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Mr. Chair, certainly the government is committed to supporting communities. That is why the fund exists: to be able to make the infrastructure more resilient and to support communities—
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Mr. Chair, I used to farm very close to Abbotsford, so I am keenly aware of the challenges in the Fraser Valley and the disasters that have affected the region.
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Mr. Chair, I appreciate the member's pointing out the critical importance of the infrastructure in the Fraser Valley on the south coast of B.C. and how important it is to the rest of Canada.
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Mr. Chair, I am aware there has been funding allocated for disaster mitigation and adaptation in the Fraser Valley, which has obviously been through some tough disasters in recent years.
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Mr. Chair, I think we can all agree that communities affected across Canada, including Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley—
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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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