Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise on the debate at report stage of Bill C-66 on the National Housing Act and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Act.
Even though it is considered to be a large sprawling rural constituency, my constituency is very much affected by this bill, the regulatory measures that are in this bill and which have preceded this bill.
In my constituency most of the single house dwellings are under contract with a local individual who is a one man contractor. Some 15 people from one area have come to me. If there are 15 people in one area, there are probably 30 people within my constituency who are young contractors who are very upset with the regulatory body. Think of how many of these small contractors are being affected across Canada.
What I am trying to point out is that the regulations that apply to this bill hurt the businesses with one or two people who build houses. It is not like the huge developments I saw last night while I was driving on the outskirts of Ottawa. Individuals who 10 years ago built houses in the rural areas, in the cities and in the towns of my constituency can no longer afford to meet the regulatory measures of this bill.
Anyone who wants to see the quality of work these contractors do can go to the city of Weyburn, or Estevan, or out to a rural area like Moosomin. There are a dozen show homes that have been lived in for 20 years. Ask those people what kind of quality went into those homes. It is top notch, the very best. There is no excuse whatsoever to deny these people the right to maintain a business within their community.
A one man contractor gets a contract to build three separate houses and what happens? Not only does he have local employment but he hires students during the summertime. They get a salary and they have on the job training. The large firms from the city do not do that. Let me also point out that when a local contractor is engaged to build a house it also benefits the immediate community. The subtrades stay within that city and community. Because of this bill these people can only build for those people who have the cash outlay.
The people in rural Canada, and not just in my constituency, are being denied the right to make a living, to live in that community, to buy in that community and to make that community prosper. And if there are 30 of these contractors in my constituency how many of these single contractors are throughout Canada?
They cannot at the present time meet all the CMHC regulations. In other words the government has regulated out of the business a whole new crop of top notch contractors. The key point is that they go out of business. In order to fill a contract, somebody has to come in from 100 miles away. They bring the subcontractors and their products with them and the local community suffers. If that is true in my constituency, it is true all across Canada.
There is another point I want to make. I have a letter presently in the hands of the Minister of Finance, the Minister of National Revenue and the Minister of Industry. That letter contains a suggestion from one of these local contractors. If the ministers will just look at this and get their responses to me it will provide me and the government with an insight as to how to keep business within the small community and how to keep the economy from going underground. As well, the suggestion which the contractor has made will help to facilitate home repairs to houses throughout the winter months.
I beg of the government to not just think of the CMHC as being involved in massive housing developments around our large cities and to not just think of the number of huge construction sites that are being developed. And I am not against that portion of it. I am simply saying that this bill, with all its regulatory means, is knocking the single contractor completely out of business. Unless he can build for a person who has money in his or her back pocket he is simply out of business.
The economy where I live is down. I do not know of a single contractor who formerly built houses who even has a house to build, for the simple reason that the only way he will get money is to go through the CMHC and that contractor cannot meet all the regulatory demands of the CMHC just to get one house to build this summer.
I beg this government to not only examine the letters that are with the three government ministers, but also to consider rural Canada, to consider these people who are quality craftsmen. They are being put out of work simply because of the regulations of this bill.