Mr. Speaker, I will begin by saying that I will be sharing my time with the member for Brampton Centre. I am very pleased to rise in the House to take part in this important debate on budget 2016, a historic budget for Canadians. I rise to speak not only in my capacity as Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, but above all as the member of Parliament for Québec.
I want to take a moment to thank some key people in my personal life and in my journey to the Parliament of Canada. I want to begin by thanking my family, whose support is crucial to me in this wonderful adventure that is my political life. I want to thank Marie-Chantal, Étienne, Clémence, and Antoine for their love and support day in and day out.
I also want to thank the voters in my riding of Québec who placed their trust in me on October 19. Over the years this riding has seen some great names in Canadian politics. I am thinking of some of my predecessors who were members for the current riding of Québec: the Right Hon. Wilfrid Laurier, who was the Liberal member from 1877 to 1911, the Right Hon. Louis St-Laurent, who was the Liberal member from 1941 to 1958, and more recently the Hon. Jean Marchand, who was the Liberal member from 1965 to 1983. I also want to salute the Hon. Gilles Lamontagne, the Liberal member from 1977 to 1983. I am particularly grateful for his invaluable advice, and I want to wish him, a little in advance since the occasion is next Sunday, a very enjoyable 97th birthday with his family and friends. It is my sincere hope that I shall be equal to the honour bestowed upon me by my constituents and that I will be a good representative of their interests in the House.
Budget 2016 has numerous positive impacts on many aspects of my portfolio as Minister of Families, Children and Social Development. For example, putting off to 67 the age of eligibility for federal pensions was a decision that unfortunately was imposed by the previous government without proper study. This lack of scientific and social sensitivity was one of my biggest motivations for making the leap into active political life.
On this subject, together with my former colleagues Nicolas-James Clavet, Steve Marchand, and Bernard Fortin, I had the opportunity to produce a study that was published last fall in the Canadian Tax Journal. I want to emphasize the excellent work done by my former colleagues and assure them that they have been heard.
That study drew three main conclusions. The first was that putting off the eligibility age to 67 would have caused the most vulnerable seniors in our society to lose up to $13,000 because of the reform. The second was that this reform would have caused 20% of the poorest seniors concerned to lose 35% of their income and 20% of the richest seniors to lose 5% of their income. The third conclusion was that 100,000 seniors would have been plunged into poverty, raising the poverty rate of seniors aged 65 and 66 from 6% to 17%. In other words, this reform would have most penalized those seniors least able to adapt to these kinds of cuts.
The Government of Canada has to support middle-class Canadians and Canadians who are working very hard to join the middle class. To do this, budget 2016 provides for total funding of $3.4 billion over two years for social infrastructure, that is, affordable housing, early learning and child care, cultural and recreational infrastructure, and community health care facilities on reserves. To increase access to affordable housing, budget 2016 proposes specifically to invest $2.3 billion over two years starting in 2016-17. Furthermore, nearly $740 million will be invested in housing in indigenous, Inuit, and northern communities.
To address the high demand for affordable housing across the country, we need to double federal investments under the investment in affordable housing initiative, which represents an additional amount of more than $500 million over two years.
Moreover, budget 2016 includes, first, nearly $200 million over two years in support for the construction, repair, and adaptation of affordable housing for our seniors, which should improve living and housing conditions for more than 5,000 low-income households. Second, the budget includes nearly $575 million over two years in funding for energy improvement, water saving, and social housing renovation projects. Third, nearly $90 million over the next two years is allocated to the construction and renovation of shelters and transition houses for victims of family violence. This unprecedented investment will lead to the creation and renovation of more than 3,000 spaces in off-reserve shelters.
Budget 2016 also includes $30 million over two years to help non-profit housing providers and federally administered housing co-ops maintain rent geared to income for households living in social housing at the end of their operating agreements.
We are also making new investments of more than $550 million over two years to meet immediate housing needs in first nations communities and to renovate and upgrade existing housing units.
An additional amount of more than $10 million will be provided over three years to support the construction of new shelters for women and children who are victims of violence in first nations communities.
Meeting the substantial housing needs and challenges in the north is another important facet of our new social infrastructure fund. Building and renovating housing units is more complex and more expensive in the north than in other parts of Canada. Budget 2016 reflects that reality. It provides funding of nearly $180 million over two years to improve access to suitable, affordable housing for northern residents.
To encourage the construction of affordable rental housing, we will also provide Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation with nearly $210 million over five years to establish an affordable rental housing innovation fund.
The innovation fund will be used to test innovative approaches to reduce the costs and risks of financing affordable rental housing projects. This funding is expected to help create up to 4,000 affordable rental housing units.
Canadian homeowners want to protect their investment. Unfortunately, over the past few years, families in some regions of Quebec have run into serious structural problems because of the presence of pyrrhotite in the foundation of their home. To help those families, the Canadian government is providing up to $30 million over three years, starting in 2016-17.
Homelessness is a reality for too many Canadians and a serious challenge for too many communities. To help homeless Canadians find stable housing, we would invest an additional $110 million over two years in the homelessness partnering strategy. This represents an increase of 50% in that strategy, which is the first increase since 1999. This investment would give communities the support they need to prevent and reduce homelessness, develop better emergency response services, and offer enhanced support to youth, women fleeing violence, and veterans.
High-quality affordable child care is not just a priority but a necessity for many Canadian families. The time has come to work collaboratively with provinces, territories, and indigenous peoples on a new national framework on early learning and childcare.
Budget 2016 would provide $500 million in 2017-18 to deliver on this framework, of which $100 million would be for indigenous early learning and child care on and off reserve.
Budget 2016 proposes to provide $29 million over the next year for urgent repairs and renovations of the facilities used by the aboriginal head start on reserve program and the first nations and Inuit child care initiative.
In conclusion, our government has chosen to take real action now, by making investments that will have a quick and significant impact on Canadian families.
I want to take this opportunity to encourage my colleagues on both sides of the House to support our government's budget 2016 and thereby support the middle class and the families who are working hard to join the middle class.