Mr. Speaker, nowhere has the current government's failure in housing become more obvious than in the province of Manitoba. While this is bad enough, it is even worse because the junior minister responsible for housing comes from Manitoba. One would think she would pay attention to the problems in her own province. She does not.
In Manitoba, housing for first nations is critical, yet a $300-million fund to produce housing has created just 99 houses. If all the government can show is $3 million per home, it is not indifference that is the problem; it is incompetence.
As the minister and her government fail to build housing in communities across Canada, particularly in rural Canada, pressures build in big cities. In Winnipeg, shabby hotels are now being used to house homeless young people. These places are as dangerous as they are dismal. The minister's response: nothing.
The only real thing the Conservative government is doing on housing is pulling subsidies, and on this file the government is hurting seniors in Manitoba. As mortgages expire, so too do low-income subsidies for Manitobans on fixed incomes.
No wonder the junior minister and her senior minister missed a major housing conference in Winnipeg in her own province. They are missing in action and—