Evidence of meeting #19 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Gregor Robertson Liberal Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC
That's why we had a large attendance there.
Conservative
Sandra Cobena Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
My question is very simple, very narrow: How do I justify that expense to my constituent?
Liberal
Gregor Robertson Liberal Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC
We need to be sure we are connected to the people who serve the homeless population across Canada. We need to make sure we're effective in rolling out our new Build Canada Homes program with supportive housing. There were lots of meetings. A lot of information was shared. A lot of relationships were built with the people who are serving across Canada in communities, like yours, that are challenged with homelessness. We want to make sure we're connected and doing the good work.
Conservative
Sandra Cobena Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Minister, a lavish conference, travel, and meetings upon meetings will not solve the problems of the gentleman I'm speaking about. Why not take that money—
Liberal
Conservative
Conservative
Sandra Cobena Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
—actually come into the riding and give it to the people?
Liberal
Caroline Desrochers Liberal Trois-Rivières, QC
The witness has answered the question many times. It's irrelevant to the mandate.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
That is not a point of order.
Again, I would remind members to not speak over one another. We need interpretation to conduct the meeting.
You have the floor, Ms. Cobena.
Conservative
Sandra Cobena Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
I just think it's very hard to justify that expense to somebody who is struggling from homelessness and who sees that your government spent $97,000 learning about their homelessness. There is no justification.
Switching topics, the Missing Middle Initiative told Canadians, “The real crash is still ahead”. New condo sales are down 89% and ground-oriented sales are down 65%, “guaranteeing an even deeper downturn in 2026 and beyond”.
Do you agree with the industry experts that Canadians need to prepare for an even worse housing crisis?
Liberal
Gregor Robertson Liberal Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC
As I said earlier, we are in a housing crisis that has been decades in the making. It's not something we solve overnight, but we have to be relentless in investing in affordable housing. Build Canada Homes is focused on non-market housing. The Government of Canada has never had a laser focus on non-market housing. We now have a one-stop shop that is focused on delivering that affordable housing at scale. That's a huge part of the housing crunch we face.
The market is facing real challenges in Vancouver and Toronto. CMHC is helping with the apartment construction loan program to make sure that many of those developers can build rental housing on the projects that otherwise would not work as condos. The market goes through cycles. We've been very fortunate as a country to have decades of the market being stable and growing.
Conservative
Liberal
Gregor Robertson Liberal Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC
Unfortunately, that's created affordability challenges—
Conservative
Liberal
Gregor Robertson Liberal Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC
—and right now the affordability is improving across the country in terms of markets.
Conservative
Sandra Cobena Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
In the GTA specifically, housing starts are decreasing. We know that. My particular concern, and I do get calls from constituents of mine who work for different companies that manufacture the doors or the windows or the floors, is that their shifts are decreasing. They are having talks about shutting down. All that skilled labour is going to be lost. The capacity is going to be lost. We are not moving at the speeds you promised.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Ms. Cobena, you are well over your time. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister.
Madam Koutrakis, you have five minutes.
Liberal
Annie Koutrakis Liberal Vimy, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister and officials, for being here this afternoon.
I'm sure that many of us on the committee have worked in the private sector. When I hear my honourable colleagues from the Conservative Party talking about a $97,000 investment for our very professional, very devoted public servants attending meetings that are going to make them even better because they're hearing from specialists.... I know that, you know, maybe in the question they say inspiration....
I was in the private sector for many years. I worked at CIBC Wood Gundy and at Raymond James. I was managing teams of 200, and any time there was an opportunity for my staff to become better informed, that was not an expense. It was an investment.
I commend you and the officials for taking that opportunity to do that. Homelessness is a big issue in our country, and we want to make sure that, with the amount of money that is going to be invested, we get it right. I think $97,000 is a drop in.... It's a lot for homeless people, but we are talking about making sure that we get this right from the get-go.
Minister, this past Monday, I had the opportunity to announce on your behalf a $20-million federal investment to create 101 affordable homes in my riding, in Vimy and Laval. All three levels of government were there—Minister Proulx, Mayor Stéphane Boyer and Minister Christopher Skeete—together with the developer, who said that he saved that project from not going forward because the previous developer ran into problems, so they had to save this project. I was very happy to be there to make that announcement.
Could you share with the committee how this project reflects the goals of the national housing strategy and how similar communities across the country can expect to benefit from this approach?
Liberal
Gregor Robertson Liberal Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC
Certainly. I couldn't agree more in terms of the importance of investing in our people and in their doing their work even better.
The affordable housing fund projects, like the one that you announced in your community, are really how we're delivering right now on affordable housing at scale.
Build Canada Homes is the next phase, but right now the affordable housing fund is delivering billions of dollars of investment in affordable homes. Many of those projects are a mix, so there are private sector builders that we're giving a lot of opportunities to. They include a mix of market and below-market housing.
Again, this has been a very successful and large-scale program as part of the national housing strategy. We want to see that kind of work basically scale up with Build Canada Homes through a different portal but with similar types of projects that have opportunities for a mix of housing and a mix of incomes. However, we have to achieve significantly more non-market housing. We need more co-op housing, student housing and seniors' housing.
About half of Canadians need some help with their housing costs. That's what we're trying to address here with Build Canada Homes and with building off the success of the affordable housing fund. Many of those projects are progressing right now through funding, through investment. That will continue for the next couple of years as Build Canada Homes scales up the work and really takes over the focus on affordable housing.
Liberal
Annie Koutrakis Liberal Vimy, QC
That's great.
We also hear often about the youth and how right now homes are so expensive that they cannot afford to buy their first home. Build Canada Homes not only helps increase the housing supply but also creates good Canadian jobs in the trades and opportunities that many young people can benefit from.
Could you speak to how the program is supporting both affordable housing and meaningful employment for the next generation?
Liberal
Gregor Robertson Liberal Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC
It's a really critical component. Housing is at the centre of Canada's economy, so I share the concerns of all members. When we have challenges on the market side right now in Vancouver and Toronto, we have to look at that and figure out how we turn that around.
We are investing first and foremost, though, in tackling the affordability crunch. That does take a lot of jobs and a lot of people contributing at all different levels, from the supply chain to the design and engineering of projects, the construction and, ultimately, the operations of the buildings. So, it's many jobs—a huge component.
If you add it all up, it's the largest industry in Canada. In these times, it's an industry that we have far more control over than our trade, particularly related to the United States. We are feeling some impacts from U.S. tariffs—obviously with softwood, steel and aluminum—and we need to be building our homebuilding industry stronger as a result of that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Madam Koutrakis.
Now I'm going to give one short question to each side to wrap it up, and we'll keep it under two minutes.
We'll begin with Mr. Ho.