Bill C-56

Affordable Housing and Groceries Act

An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act

Part 1 amends the Excise Tax Act in order to implement a temporary enhancement to the GST New Residential Rental Property Rebate in respect of new purpose-built rental housing.
Part 2 amends the Competition Act to, among other things,
(a) establish a framework for an inquiry to be conducted into the state of competition in a market or industry;
(b) permit the Competition Tribunal to make certain orders even if none of the parties to an agreement or arrangement — a significant purpose of which is to prevent or lessen competition in any market — are competitors; and
(c) repeal the exceptions in sections 90.1 and 96 of the Act involving efficiency gains.

Affordable Housing and Groceries Act

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I did ask the member to withdraw that piece in which he said that no one has spoken to it because the member for Prince Albert has spoken to it.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I withdraw that with respect to the hon. member for Prince Albert. Wow, the skin is thin.

Back to the point—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. member for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Mr. Speaker, on that point of order, I would be happy to provide my notes, as I spoke to the issue as well.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

We are starting to get into further debate, and I will be happy to call on members to ask questions when the hon. member is done. I am sure the hon. member for St. Catharines has a point to make in his speech.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have been making a clear point throughout the entirety of my speech and the Conservatives have been trying to shout me down, which they also tried to do to the member for New Westminster—Burnaby because they are embarrassed of their record.

What they should be embarrassed of is their record on housing. I was talking about, before I was interrupted, this mythical 45 minutes during the day which is question period when they pretend to care about Canadians who are struggling with housing, but they come up with a plan that would raise taxes on construction of housing. It would actually cut funding to municipalities. This is their plan.

The member who got up and said that there were Conservatives talking about the bill said that the government has no business in housing. It is shameful, but it shows where the Conservatives are at with respect to this. They talk a big game in question period and deliver nothing. They talk about Mike Harris' common-sense revolution, but we saw what happened during that time. We saw cuts. We saw hospital closures. We saw horrific things that communities are still dealing with to this day in Ontario, and the Conservatives seek to mimic it.

As I said, question period for them is about recycling slogans. There is no seriousness about their effort to fight homelessness and to build more housing. It is absolutely shocking that the Leader of the Opposition would go across the country to say that he is going to get housing built and not have a serious plan to deliver on it.

We have shown, in the fall economic statement, that we have a serious plan through the housing accelerator fund. We have seen announcements across the country, and we are seeing growth in housing starts through Stats Canada. We are seeing the results of this government's plan of action, and we are serious about this issue. The Conservatives are not. They have delayed and obstructed and they are continuing to do it. I do not know how many points of order the Conservatives have risen on during my speech.

The Leader of the Opposition even called co-op housing “Soviet-style” housing. It is absolutely shameful. I have constituents in my riding, and I think they would have constituents in their ridings, who rely on co-op housing as an effective means to get housing built. It is an effective means for affordable housing and a good way to build housing, and the Leader of the Opposition dismisses it. Again, he does not have a plan at all. He does not have a plan on climate change, and he does not have a plan on housing. They get up to talk about a big gain, but offer nothing except obstruction, yelling and heckling, and they are continuing the heckling. It is absolutely shocking.

They talk about food prices, and I genuinely believe them. We hear from our constituents, but the Conservatives have no plan. They talk about the price on pollution, but do not talk about the cost of food with respect to the costs of climate change. They do not talk about Bill C-56, which would enact competition law that would bring forward better regulations on competition and would have impacts. Again, it is just delay and deny. If only the rhetoric of question period, that 45 minutes of the day when the Conservatives pretend to care, could match the reality of the crisis. I wish that were the case. Sadly, it is not.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I will remind the hon. member that question period is more than 45 minutes these days because it does go on long. It would be lovely if we could get it back to 45 minutes.

Questions and comments, the hon. member for North Okanagan—Shuswap.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the member for St. Catharines seems to have forgotten to fit into his speech, which is supposed to be about the affordable housing and groceries act, that his Prime Minister had this big meeting with officers from all of the major grocery chains, and he promised to bring down the price of groceries by Thanksgiving. How much did that meeting bring down the cost of groceries by Thanksgiving?

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives talk a big game, but this legislation was tabled well before Thanksgiving. All we have seen is delay, obstruction and no action by the Conservatives. There is no care of Canadian food pricing. Again, the Conservatives talk a big game. They heckle, shout and yell, but their voting record speaks for itself, and it is not for Canadians.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is going to be a long night.

I thank my colleague for his speech because it went in all directions, especially at first. If we truly come back to Bill C‑56, the Minister of Finance said that there were studies that prove that Bill C‑56 would lower the cost of rent. My question is on the housing crisis, which has become a national emergency.

After the Bloc Québécois asked officials the question during the briefing for members, the officials said that there were no studies and that they may contact us later. That was on September 21. November 21 just passed and we are still waiting for the studies.

Does the member have any studies on hand proving that Bill C‑56 will lower the cost of rent?

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is about getting more housing supply built. Reducing GST on purpose-built rentals will get more rentals built. We are already seeing the results with developers announcing thousands of units of housing being built. The member can wait for studies; I am going to listen to experts. We are seeing the results on the street and on construction sites. It is going to get the job done.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the member talked a lot about housing. The government, of course, purports that it wants to see more housing built faster, yet in the fall economic statement, it has slow-walked the rollout of money that would actually build housing Canadians could afford. That does not make any sense.

Now, on this particular bill, another thing that does not make sense is that the government is not making the GST exemption available to existing co-op and social housing projects. If they do not get access to that funding, some of these projects may actually become unviable.

If the member truly supports housing and seeing social and co-op housing being developed in this country, will he call on his own government to allow the exemption for existing projects?

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud of the government's record on housing. I was proud to cut the ribbon for the first affordable and subsidized housing units in the city of St. Catharines in my lifetime.

More work needs to be done, which is why I am excited by the announcements in the fall economic statement. Let us see more purpose-built rentals getting built under Bill C-56. The hon. member can keep yelling, but we are focused on Canadians, and we are going to get more housing built.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, when an individual is elected to this place, he should know a little bit about geography and that the name of the province that I come from is not Newfoundland but Newfoundland and Labrador.

I am not going to ask a question. I am going to call for this member to apologize to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador for calling our province simply “Newfoundland”. Will he do so?

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think I was specific in my comments. I specifically said that the province was named Newfoundland and Labrador and that the member is from the Island of Newfoundland. The province is the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, which I acknowledged in my speech.

That is if the member was listening. Clearly, he was yelling too loudly during the heckling portion of his time over there, unfortunately. I did say that, and he can go back to Hansard or he can keep heckling all night long. I am sure that is what he is going to do.