Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The other thing I'll mention on this point is how rent continues to get more expensive for Canadians. We know that Rentals.ca published their national rent report, which showed the consequences of this government's policies. Canada's average asking rent reached a record high of $2,093 in September. On top of this, the cost of rent is 13.4% higher than it was two years ago, and 25.2% higher than it was three years ago. This means that the cost of rent has really massively outpaced Canadians' paycheques.
We know that the situation is even considerably more difficult in Canada's largest cities. For example, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the average asking rent for all unit types reached $3,023. Canadians are having to pay $2,668 in Toronto. With rent costing as much as it does, many Canadians are having to live in shared accommodation. We know that many, in particular young adults, are still living with parents. I know myself of some constituents of mine where a family has had to move back in with one of the parents just in order to get by, so that maybe they can work on saving for a home one day.
On that topic, we know that it used to take 25 years to pay off a mortgage. It now takes 25 years to save for a down payment. I remember being in my early twenties, like many of us in this room here, when, as long as you had a decent job, you could have a decent car. You could go on the odd holiday. You could save up, within a short amount of time, a down payment for your first small place to start out. That doesn't exist anymore, which is why you're seeing so many young adults still living with relatives and family members, and families living together. They just can't afford to either live on their own or save up for their first place. This is the reality that people are in.
We also know, in talking with seniors, that in order for them to even consider downsizing.... I talk to seniors quite often in my riding. They're saying, “I could sell my home, but where do I go? Prices are so high now that even if I downsize, everything is so expensive.” The cost of housing is affecting everyone in all demographics. We know that housing costs have doubled in nine years. Those are substantial numbers.
We know that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has made it clear that the number of homes being built isn't enough to reduce the existing supply gap and improve affordability for Canadians.
Actually, on that, when we're talking about affordability and housing through CMHC, we had a number of people testify here at some recent housing studies. They were saying that the bureaucracy, the red tape and the costs that the CMHC itself is imposing are making housing less affordable. As an example, we heard from more than one not-for-profit talking about the fact that CMHC will impose extra ways of building that are above the regular, if you want to call it that, building code standards, therefore adding costs. They will also impose that you need different experts to come in. Even though it meets all the building codes and you might even get a building permit, you have to have these extra consultants come in. We heard testimony from some of these not-for-profits that this could easily add at least $15,000 per unit.
That is a huge amount. They also expressed how, with CMHC, the delays they're experiencing, when they do these applications with CMHC, can actually add to costs. We heard testimony from one witness who was saying that, depending on where the building is, if you don't have approvals, you might miss the whole season because of the weather. Therefore, you may not be able to start or to move along whatever stage it is. We heard that policies from CMHC are actually impeding building these affordable units and adding to costs.
Also, going back to some of these consultants who have to come in, we did hear that, particularly in rural communities, they may not have these consultants readily available, so they have to bring them in from a major municipality. Again, that adds delays and costs. In fact, some of the policies of the Liberal government and those through CMHC are actually not helping to build affordable homes due to the bureaucracy, the red tape and the additional costs.
We also know that, at the same time, Canadians' paycheques are just not keeping up with inflation. We had a report recently, through the Parliamentary Budget Officer, which showed that inflation and sky-high interest rates had “eroded” the power of Canadians' paycheques over the last two years. This is especially hard on low-income workers, while the wealthiest Canadians saw their wealth appreciate thanks to their investment income.
I don't have it here, but I was reading an article last night. I think it might have been in the Financial Post. I was just reading something last night that talked about this. Again, during this time, and even in recent times, the people who are getting the farthest ahead are the wealthiest of the wealthiest because they've seen their investments go up. If you're not at that level.... The people in the middle class and the working class—or, as we call them, “the working poor”—have really been among the hardest hit.
Going back to this Parliamentary Budget Officer report, it described that “inflation and the accompanying tightening of monetary policy have affected household purchasing power disproportionately, depending on income level.” On top of this, Canadians' incomes have not kept up with Trudeau's rampant inflation.
In fact, RBC predicted recently—this would have been in September—that Canada's GDP per capita will decrease “for a sixth consecutive quarter.” This means that the personal income of Canadians has now fallen back to the same level that we've seen previously, while unemployment has increased. We also know that even the government's own reports have said it's expecting unemployment on a trajectory to continue to rise.
We know that Canadians have seen price increases of more than 15% on a typical basket of goods and services. The costs of food, shelter and transportation have grown especially quickly, which again has made it really tough for those in the lower income percentiles and for a lot of the working Canadians. We know that inflationary deficits and taxes have resulted in a wealth transfer, so we're seeing that the wealthiest of the wealthiest really have gotten ahead, especially over the last few years. Unless you have a considerable amount of assets, a considerable amount of stocks, you haven't seen your wealth grow. In fact, paycheques have been reduced during this time for most Canadians. Even if they saw a moderate paycheque increase, it is not enough to offset the increases that we've seen.
We've also seen numbers from Statistics Canada that show that the greatest cost increases have been on the essentials. The biggest cost increases have been on housing, food and fuel. When you look at where the big cost increases are that are affecting people and that are affecting small businesses, you see that they're actually on those essentials.
I'll continue talking about where Canadians' incomes are and how the costs have been affected. In 2014—the year before this current government took office—The New York Times wrote that Canada was “Home of the World's Most Affluent Middle Class”. This is what I was just mentioning. Now the per capita economic output in most of our regions across the country lags behind those in the United States.
The state of Canada's economy was confirmed again by the Fraser Institute, which reported that Canadians' incomes have drastically fallen behind the incomes of Americans and that Fraser Institute research shows that “Canadian provinces are getting poorer relative to their US peers.”
When you're looking at some of these comparisons, you're seeing that it's more difficult for people here in Canada. We are falling further behind. As I mentioned, this RBC report does predict that Canada's GDP per capita will continue to decrease. When we're comparing Canada to other countries, we see that this is a made-in-Canada issue.
The other thing we've seen at this committee is how people with disabilities are struggling. We've had a fair amount of testimony here. We've almost completed the disability study that I was mentioning earlier, and we know that persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis. We've heard some testimony from their family members. Being the shadow minister, I know that my shadow ministry includes disability inclusion. I do talk to families and organizations all the time that talk about how persons with disabilities are affected. This also really affects many of their families because, depending on the situation, sometimes the families are the primary caregivers and are having to assist their family member or look after their family member. The cost of living crisis really has disproportionately hurt persons with disabilities.
I know that when we were debating the Canada disability benefit, we heard about this quite often. We even heard testimony regarding persons with disabilities considering MAID because they couldn't afford to live. It is incredibly heartbreaking and incredibly sad that someone would be considering that. We know that many Canadians are feeling quite hopeless when they're looking at being able to just afford basic necessities.
In spite of all this, the government continues on with the trajectory of its policies, of its high-tax, high-spend agenda. We haven't seen any indication of a reprieve from this. We know that any time this government puts out a fall economic statement or a budget, it does still include deficits. We know there are reports that the deficits are higher than what was expected by the government. It just shows how this government isn't able to manage its fiscal house—when every time we have a budget come out, it continues to be in deficit.
We have to remember that when this government got elected, back in 2015, they talked about how they were just going to have a little deficit.
