Evidence of meeting #42 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was division.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Where does Cúram fit into all this? This matter hasn't been settled. We haven't got to the bottom of it yet.
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
In our case, we don't have many details about the Cúram situation and its impact on the old age security program.
However, when we looked at the spring economic statement for the 2025‑26 fiscal year, we noted that the annual amount and annual growth were perhaps a bit lower than what we should expect, given inflation and population growth. We also noted a rebound of sorts the following year. We've taken note of this. We don't necessarily have any information regarding how this affects Cúram.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I would like to add something to Ms. Nicol's excellent response. We asked Employment and Social Development Canada for answers regarding Cúram and its impact on benefits. We'll continue to monitor this issue.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Will you be sending this information to the committee? We would appreciate it.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I think that we received a partial response.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Okay.
I have one last question.
We hear a great deal about per capita debt. However, I would like to talk about personal household debt. I'm neither a tax expert nor an economist, but the Bank of Canada is talking about a high debt rate. If the government is getting into debt, how can we correlate public finances with the debt of ordinary people? Does this have an impact? What can we tell people?
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I think that—
Conservative
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We need to pay attention in order to respond to shocks. If families aren't doing well, but the government is fine, this raises questions about our situation compared to the situation abroad.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thanks very much.
We'll go to Mrs. Jansen, but before she starts, we're actually cruising ahead pretty well. If everyone's fine, we can either add a couple of minutes to each of these interventions or add one more intervention at the end. Just let me know.
Please go ahead.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Since, in the main estimates, we see billions in housing-related spending, I just want to focus on the report you did on buy Canada. My first question is this: Given that CMHC already existed, with the myriad other housing financing powers and so forth, did the government need to create Build Canada Homes at all?
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We've had a request from Senate finance, I believe, to look at the ensemble of programs that support housing.
Do you want to give a little thumbnail on that, Mark?
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
I'm just looking for a quick yes or no. You're saying you're going to look into it. That's what I understand.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We have some studies looking at the range of things that are out there supporting housing.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Okay, so my next question is, basically, has the government demonstrated that Build Canada Homes will deliver housing faster than what CMHC was already capable of delivering?
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We've done some estimates on this.
Govindadeva or Caroline, do you want to take it?
Govindadeva Bernier Director, Budgetary Analysis, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Our understanding, first of all, is that it seems that most of the affordable housing responsibility is going to be switched to Build Canada Homes, so—
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Okay. I'm sorry. It's just because I have super short.... I was hoping that you had a quick answer. You're saying affordable goes to—
Director, Budgetary Analysis, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Our initial reports showed that, at least for now, it doesn't seem like it's going to move the needle much. That's the result we had.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Okay.
Last night, Liberal MP Leslie Church stood in the House and said:
We are building big, we are building bold, and we are building now. We are building at a scale not seen in this country since the end of the Second World War. We are building 500,000 homes....
My question is this: If Build Canada Homes is expected to add only 26,000 units over five years, does that fall short of the government's public promises, and do those numbers align with the member's assertion from last night?
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I think you've captured the key figure that we've estimated previously of—
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
—26,000 being the impact of that program. I think we've also done work recently to identify the gap in homes versus demographics—
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
I'm more just asking whether the number the member stated and the number we're seeing align. They don't appear to align to me.