Mr. Speaker, today we are discussing Bill C-304, the NDP's bill for a national housing strategy.
It has been reviewed by committee and returned to the House with amendments, but it remains a fundamentally flawed piece of legislation.
The amendments proposed by the committee do nothing to alleviate the government's concerns with the bill.
The NDP members have gone to quite a bit of trouble to craft a bill just so. In fact, they had to take great care to ensure the bill did not run afoul of the rules of royal recommendation and they succeeded, barely.
They had to take all that care because they know as well as anyone that actual implementation of their national housing strategy will cost billions upon billions of extra dollars every year.
As the Speaker has ruled, this bill may go forward if it has sufficient support, but it is certainly not without cost. So, we will not indulge the opposition with that bold fiction. The truth is that the bill would cost us quite a lot and I think far too much.
Our country is still recovering from the recent recession. What it certainly does not need at this time is coalition-driven spending and tax increases, which is what would result with the passing of this bill. This is something they cannot deny.
It seems every time the opposition members speak, they are calling for billions in more spending and more tax increases.
To say they have some big ticket items in their policy hopper would grossly underestimate the price of those other items. As I said earlier, this bill is no different.