House of Commons Hansard #375 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was home.

Topics

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:40 p.m.

Conservative

Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the fact that my NDP colleague brought up this great piece of journalism by Alex Ballingall, entitled “Did the federal government really help 1 million Canadians find housing?”

I am going to go back to it. At the end of the article, Jeff Morrison, the executive director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, is noted as saying that “much of the government spending since 2016 is from the renewal of so-called ‘operating agreements’”. He goes on to say, “Most of this is just stuff they were already doing”, referring to previous governments.

A government document from CMHC, made public in November, showed that for $5.7 billion, the government was only able to build 15,000 affordable housing units and renovate 150,000 other units. Talk about overspending and under-delivering, which has been the point that the New Democrats and Conservatives have made. How could the member defend that?

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:40 p.m.

Liberal

Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON

Madam Speaker, we know it is a new day when the Conservatives start quoting from the Toronto Star and not the Fraser Institute. This is impressive.

I feel sorry for the member. He is virtually the only member of the Conservative Party who has stood today. He is defending the entire Conservative Party on affordable housing. Members can tell that the Conservatives do not even care about affordable housing, as the only thing they have been talking about today is the stress test for mortgages. This should highlight for the Canadian people where the Conservative Party is when it comes to affordable housing.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:40 p.m.

NDP

Wayne Stetski NDP Kootenay—Columbia, BC

Madam Speaker, Erin from the homeless outreach and homelessness prevention program in Cranbrook has sent me four pages of concerns that we have in the city of Cranbrook. I will just quickly cover three of them.

A woman with a young baby had to suddenly flee her spouse after a severely violent event. All she could find was a one-bedroom suite for $1,000 plus utilities, as her 30-day stay in the local transition house was up and there was no space in second-stage housing.

A veteran from the Canadian Armed Forces was charged $850 for rent. When the landlord realized this person had a support animal for PTSD, this person was charged an additional $150 per month. There were no other housing options for this person.

Young indigenous parents were struggling for the return of their three children. They worked to get their personal issues in check enough to have them returned, but because they do not have a large enough home, the children are not permitted to live with them. This is a very common occurrence.

Is the Liberal government not failing that single mother, that veteran and that indigenous family when it comes to housing?

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:40 p.m.

Liberal

Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON

Madam Speaker, I totally agree with the member that some people out there are struggling and need housing.

In my community, the waiting list to get into affordable housing has over 1,000 people. This is a small community of 120,000 people.

There is no doubt that we need to do more. I said this in the beginning of my speech. We will never hit a point at which we have to stop trying to improve upon the affordable housing situation in my community, in his community and indeed throughout Canada.

Yes, we need to do more. We always need to do more. However, the government has set up a plan, the right plan, and is moving forward on delivering that plan.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:40 p.m.

NDP

Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Sherbrooke.

I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak to the issue of housing. It is one of the most fundamental issues and should be a preoccupation of government.

If people do not have a warm and safe place to sleep at the end of the day, if they do not have a place where people can contact them by mail, it is hard for them to do anything else in life. It is hard to get a job. It is hard to spend the day doing anything else other than trying to ensure at the end of that day they will have a place where they can manage to get through the night and try again the next day.

Housing really is the catalyst for people getting back on their feet and getting started. It sounds like something really obvious to say. I feel kind of funny saying that. For those of us who are fortunate enough to have good housing, when we think of it we say of course. The fact is that millions of Canadians are not properly housed, cannot afford to take that for granted and wish they could feel that was an obvious statement. However, for them, it is not.

The point of today's motion is to try to give a kick-start to the government, which has announced a national housing strategy. We have heard a lot of numbers over the last number of years, but we have not seen the results. Therefore, we are impatient. I am not ashamed to say that. Canadians who are living without proper housing are impatient to be housed properly. The fact is that we are not doing enough quickly enough to ensure it happens.

This is about trying to have firm targets for an amount of units to be built. We are calling for 250,000 units built in the next five years and 500,000 over the next 10 years in order to get those Canadians housed and back on track.

That is why the NDP have been advocates in this place, like many other people in civil society, for a right to housing and to take a rights-based approach to housing. It is as important as anything else in anybody's life. Our political rights are very important, but they do not mean a lot if we do not have a place to sleep, particularly not in the kind of weather we have had in Ottawa this week and that we have had back home in Winnipeg, where temperatures have been -40°C to -50°C. If people do not have a warm place to go at night, their other rights do not matter than much.

When one of my colleagues from B.C. had a private member's bill in the House that would bring in that rights-based approach to housing, I heard the parliamentary secretary, who has been up many times today, say that we did not need judges deciding where to build housing and everything else. The nicest way I can describe that kind of argument is “facetious”. No one has ever pretended that judges should be building affordable housing.

However, we think that where governments repeatedly fail, as the federal government has for 25 years, to make the kinds of investments that need to be made to ensure Canadians can be decently housed, there should be some kind of remedial action that goes outside the politics of this place, where Canadians can get a fair hearing and governments can be compelled to do the right thing.

That is why we are quite proud to support a right to housing. We were disappointed when other parties in the chamber did not support us in that endeavour.

When we talk about housing and the crisis happening right now with respect to it, there are a number of different facets to that. One is the problem of homelessness, and that is a serious problem right now in Winnipeg. We have a number of different shelters that have been set up over the years and in times especially like this, they are operating at capacity.

I want to commend the work of 1JustCity for setting up the emergency shelter Just a Warm Sleep. I have to give a shout-out for my younger sister Tessa who was involved in getting that up and off the ground. However, one thing Tessa told me was this. Of the people who we sleeping at Just a Warm Sleep, a small shelter with about 25 beds, a handful of those people were working full time and came to the warming centre at night because they could not afford an adequate place to live, despite working full time. That is because there are not enough affordable spaces.

It gives us a sense of what is going on in the Winnipeg housing market when we know that people who are working full time are having to go to shelters at night in order to have a good place to sleep. This is a real problem, and it affects people from all different walks of life and in different employment situations.

I will talk about the Columbus Centennial Seniors Housing Co-op in my riding. There were a lot of promises made by the Liberal government in the election, so we were looking for some leadership and answers for this co-op on two fronts. The Columbus housing co-op has faced a lot of problems because it is situated on a riverbank that is eroding, and residents are fearful for the integrity of the building over time. They have not had a great response from the municipal or provincial governments.

However, if there is significant new money for housing, and the Liberals have said they want to provide that and help fix up places, the irony for these people is that if their roof were leaking and that was jeopardizing the building, they might be able to access funds, but the fact of the matter is that it is riverbank erosion that is threatening their building.

There are 35 rent-geared-to-income units in that building that we should all be concerned to keep, because we are not going to make gains in terms of more social housing if we do not preserve what we already have. However, because of their unique situation, they are falling through the cracks.

I have asked various levels of government, including the federal government, to give consideration to the idea that they be able to access the renovation fund in order to do riverbank work, not just work on the roof itself, in order to preserve those units. So far we have not been able to achieve that, which is a disappointment for them.

The other disappointment for them is that they are one of those housing co-ops whose rent-geared-to-income units, or social units, or affordable units, whatever one wants to call them, are tied to federal funding that is tied to their mortgage. Their mortgage is set to mature in several years, past 2020. We heard in the election about the problem of operating agreements expiring, funding leaving, and then affordable units having to be surrendered or put up to market rent. With all that entails, people living there could not afford those rents, and we do not have a solution to that.

We have a temporary band-aid from the government in the national housing strategy that is going to take us to March 2020, which is kind of an extension of those agreements. However, three years into this Parliament, Canadians and certainly residents of the Columbus co-op expected that we would already know the long-term and lasting solution for those buildings. We expected a solution to preserve those social units for the sake of the people living in them, and to build on that base of social units that exist in order to ultimately increase and expand social housing.

We have not seen that solution, and it is an important failing of the housing strategy so far that this co-op does not have the help or certainty that it needs in its medium-term forecast.

There was an announcement in my riding recently under the national housing strategy. I am glad of the investment, as many people in northeast Winnipeg would be, but it is a challenge to somebody who really believes that there is a crisis and we need to increase our social housing stock.

The announcement was about rental units in a new development. The government press release said that this funding they were announcing would be contingent upon the company setting rents at 30% of the median household income. Well, the median household income is about $69,000 a year. If we take 30% of that and divvy it up over 12 months, that would mean the owner of the building could charge rents as high as $1,700 a month.

While I know there are middle-class families who are struggling to find affordable housing, there is a real urgency to kick-start the building of social housing. Therefore, in terms of the announcement we have seen, I am not confident that it goes to the area of highest need. I know we need to do many things at once, but I sure hope that the national housing strategy is not just about offering some money to developers to marginally lower their rents so that the Liberals can talk big numbers like $40 billion when they are only spending $10 billion, and actually 80% of that comes after the next election. We have heard recently in the Toronto Star that the government is willing to have some fun with numbers.

It is important that we put an emphasis on social housing, that we preserve units like the ones at Columbus co-op, and that we serve our homeless population, who are in desperate need of a roof over their head so they can get on with the other important things in their lives.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:50 p.m.

Joyce Murray Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government, Lib.

Madam Speaker, all sides of this House agree about the importance of housing affordability. Even in Vancouver Quadra, which is seen as a wealthy west side Vancouver neighbourhood, we have co-ops, we have social housing, we have three-storey wooden walk-ups, we have people who are homeless, and we have a whole gamut of social housing needs there too.

What I have heard from this debate today on both sides is the extreme complexity and multi-layered nature of this subject and how to address it. Our government has put in a historic amount of funding, as well as the thought and the partnership for a collaborative and systemic approach, from subsidies to those who need help paying their housing costs, to repairs, to extending co-ops and so on.

I ask the member for Elmwood—Transcona why his party would put forward a motion that is so narrowly focused on creating units of affordable housing. It is so narrowly focused that even if the motion did not say that the government is failing, which we know it is not, I could not support a motion focused on just one aspect of this incredibly complex, multi-faceted requirement to support people in accessing affordable housing.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:55 p.m.

NDP

Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB

Madam Speaker, we want to put the emphasis on building units. While we could talk all day about the complexities of this and the complexities of that, and there are complex problems, at the end of the day we have to boil it down to say that we are not going to house people in Canada if we are not building units. The problem with the national housing strategy is that it makes a fetish of complexity as an excuse to do nothing, or certainly not do enough and not do it quickly enough.

We can look at some of the provincial governments across the country, and we have heard a lot, particularly about the NDP government in B.C. When it set its mind to building housing, it started building units right away. That government is not three years into a majority mandate. It is a minority government in a coalition situation, and it is getting more units built. The B.C. government is getting it done.

The idea that somehow we need to get hung up on those complexities and miss the forest for the trees, which is missing that we need more social housing in Canada, is a mistake. This motion is meant to remind the House of that, remind the government of that, and get them on it.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:55 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Elmwood—Transcona and the New Democratic Party for an opportunity to talk about the critical issue of homelessness today. In particular, as my hon. colleague noted in his remarks, with the bitter cold that we are now experiencing, having shelter is a matter of life and death.

I appreciate the fact that homelessness and affordable housing are back on the federal agenda and getting attention. Although it is not immediately the question before us today, I have a lot of residents in my riding who are not critically impoverished at the level that they are homeless, but who are about to become homeless as they age and as they look for affordable housing. If they sell their homes where I live, it looks like they are millionaires, but there is no place for them to move to.

We really need affordable housing for seniors who are at the middle-income level. I know that is not the direct import of today's debate, but I wonder if the hon. member has any thoughts on that critical need.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:55 p.m.

NDP

Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB

Madam Speaker, that is absolutely true. In fact, I was talking earlier about Columbus housing co-op, which is in Elmwood. Thirty-five of the 70 units in that building are rent-geared-to-income units, but the other units are market rent, essentially.

We held a seniors town hall in my riding back in the fall, and one of the things we heard was that seniors are facing a real challenge, particularly at the time they are thinking about transitioning from their family home into other living spaces. The member is quite right that they might have a lot of equity in their home, but if they are still in the same housing market, that equity gets used up very quickly just to secure another place to live.

We want to see some quicker action from the government. It found $4.5 billion overnight to buy a pipeline, not to build a new pipeline but to buy one that already existed. We are saying that if it put the same amount of effort and concentration into building housing in this country, it would be going a lot faster, which is appropriate because we need to be responding to a crisis, not getting around to it in 10 years.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:55 p.m.

NDP

Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC

Madam Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion:

That, at the conclusion of today's debate on the opposition motion in the name of the Member for Saskatoon West, all questions necessary to dispose of the motion be deemed put and a recorded division deemed requested and deferred to Tuesday, February 5, 2019, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

2 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

Does the hon. member have the unanimous consent of the House to move the motion?

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

2 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

2 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

2 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Opposition Motion—Affordable HousingBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

2 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

(Motion agreed to)

OilStatements By Members

2 p.m.

Bloc

Monique Pauzé Bloc Repentigny, QC

Madam Speaker, the government paid $1 billion too much for the Trans Mountain pipeline because it did not bother to negotiate. That is the crux of the problem today. It did not negotiate because when the oil industry asks for something, Ottawa always says yes right away.

Alberta wants new rail cars that are going to cost billions of dollars—yes. Alberta wants pipelines to export its dirty oil—yes. Alberta wants money to step up oil sands development, and Ottawa’s only question is “how much”?

The federal government always says yes right away because, apparently, oil represents the Canadian identity and Canadian unity. Ottawa is putting all of its eggs in one basket. In fact, it is putting all of our eggs in one basket. That is what Canada is all about. Either we jump on that bandwagon, or we get together and do something else.

Perley PalmerStatements By Members

January 31st, 2019 / 2 p.m.

Liberal

Matt DeCourcey Liberal Fredericton, NB

Madam Speaker, in Fredericton, no children's birthday party trip to the Northside Market or visit to Science East was complete without seeing Perley the Magician. For over 30 years, Perley Palmer delighted kids and adults alike with his warmth and wonder.

In December, we lost Perley to cancer, and Fredericton lost a beacon of joy. His laughter and delight spanned generations. Parents would watch their own children be wowed by tricks that Perley had performed for them when they were kids.

Fredericton declared July 13 Perley Palmer Day. It is a day for everyone to take a moment to remember our magic man, who was always willing to do a trick for any child he met. There was nothing Perley loved more than to see children wide-eyed with wonder at his magic tricks.

We thank Perley's wife, Valerie, and his mother, children and grandchildren for sharing Perley's incredible gifts with our community for generations.

Quinn DavisStatements By Members

2 p.m.

Conservative

Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB

Maran'athah, Madam Speaker. That would be a familiar greeting to anyone who knew Pastor Quinn Davis, who passed away from cancer on December 12 of last year. Warm, cheerful, encouraging and pious, in Pastor Quinn, the Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel congregation had it all.

Pastor Glen would describe him as “a glass of fresh water when you are parched.” He loved Peru, and especially Lima, from his many ministry visits, always armed with candy for the kids. Quinn had no dimmer switch; on or off were his only settings. He would tell people exactly what they needed to hear. Sometimes he knew what needed to be said before the question was even asked.

I ask all members to join me in this House in offering our sincerest condolences to his wife of 29 years, Pam, and his daughters, Kiersten and Jessalyn.

Pastor Quinn is not lost to us. He has simply gone ahead to the Kingdom of God. Maran'athah.

Mel GassStatements By Members

2 p.m.

Liberal

Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the life of former MP Mel Gass, who recently passed away. Mel, a businessman, was elected three times as a Progressive Conservative and served the riding of Malpeque for nine years with distinction. As a member of several committees, Mel felt truly honoured to lay a wreath at Dieppe as chair of the veterans affairs committee, and he especially enjoyed his time as parliamentary secretary to the minister of fisheries and oceans. I can sincerely say that he stood up for fishermen in Canada and in his community. In 1989, Mel served as leader of the provincial PC Party.

Returning to private life, Mel continued to operate Silverwood Motel and served as a local councillor. As well, he was president of the Tourism Industry Association of Prince Edward Island and was granted several awards for his work in tourism.

Afflicted with ALS in recent years, he retained his good nature and sense of humour. His love of life, people and community always showed through for the proud Canadian he was. Our condolences go out to his family.

Black History MonthStatements By Members

2:05 p.m.

NDP

Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON

Mr. Speaker, as Black History Month begins, the theme across Canada this year is “Black Canadian Youth: Boundless, Rooted and Proud”, highlighting the importance of providing youth with positive role models, celebrating the achievements of people of African descent throughout Canadian history and learning what we can from their stories of overcoming.

In our region of Windsor-Essex, we have a powerful history of more than 30,000 former enslaved people of African descent who freed themselves and made their way to freedom in Canada, sometimes with help from Underground Railroad operatives but often relying on their own intelligence, critical thinking, courage and determination.

Mary Ann Shadd, born a free person of African descent in Delaware, moved to Windsor in 1851, where she opened Windsor's first black school. She is the first woman in Canada, and the first woman of African descent in North America, to publish a newspaper, the Provincial Freeman.

Elijah McCoy, who was born to formerly enslaved parents in Colchester in 1843, went on to become one of North America's greatest inventors, with 57 patents in his name.

This year, we lost former New Democrat Dr. Howard McCurdy, who was Canada's second black member of Parliament.

This month, as we celebrate, I encourage all Canadians to learn about our rich black history by sharing stories of incredible Canadians.

Lake MemphremagogStatements By Members

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

Denis Paradis Liberal Brome—Missisquoi, QC

Mr. Speaker, protecting Lake Memphremagog remains a top priority for me.

On January 22, a public hearing was held in Newport, Vermont, concerning the expansion of the Coventry landfill. This landfill is located upstream of Lake Memphremagog, and 175,000 people in Magog and Sherbrooke are very worried because their drinking water comes from the lake.

The main thing I want people to know about the hearing is that it showed that more and more people in both Canada and the U.S. are worried about the situation. Municipal and provincial elected officials, organizations, the media, and Canadian and American citizens have shown that they care about preserving the water quality of Lake Memphremagog.

I just want to thank Robert Benoit, president of Memphremagog Conservation. Let us continue our efforts to ensure that future generations have clean water.

Francis GodonStatements By Members

2:05 p.m.

Conservative

Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Francis “Frank” Godon, a Métis World War II veteran and extraordinary Canadian who passed away on January 12.

Mr. Godon joined the Canadian Forces in 1942, and on June 6, 1944, he landed on Juno Beach with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. He was taken prisoner and put in a concentration and labour camp. Thankfully, with liberation, he returned to Canada in 1945.

In 2014, he returned to the beaches of Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day, representing the participation of first nations and Métis soldiers in the Canadian campaign in Europe during World War II. He is featured in Veteran Stories for The Memory Project, for which he shared a powerful account of his experiences as a Métis soldier. He said, “If your buddies got hurt during that and the yelling and crying, you couldn't stop, you had to keep going.”

To Mr. Godon's family, I extend my sincere condolences on the loss of a great Canadian hero. His dedication and sacrifice for his country shall never be forgotten.

Gnome for a Home CardsStatements By Members

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON

Mr. Speaker, today I am honoured to stand and recognize a member of my community, a 10-year-old named Lylia. Concerned about homeless people in our community being alone at one of her favourite times of the year, Lylia decided to raise money for them. She hand painted seasons greetings cards of gnomes and started selling them for $5 each. Her endeavour, “Gnome for a Home”, has received orders from people in Kingston, Montreal, Quebec and even Paris. Her goal was to sell 100 cards by Christmas of 2018. However, she was able to sell 200 and raised $1,000.

Lylia then took all the proceeds to Martha's Table, a not-for-profit agency in Kingston that helps provide meals for those in need. However, it did not stop there. Lylia now has a new goal: to sell 200 Valentine-themed cards by February 14.

I am so proud to have such a determined and caring individual in my riding of Kingston and the Islands.

Lylia, thank you for taking the initiative to help the homeless.

FisheriesStatements By Members

2:05 p.m.

Liberal

Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC

Mr. Speaker, my community of Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge is home to many passionate organizations, such as the Alouette River Management Society, the Kanaka Education & Environmental Partnership Society, the Katzie and Kwantlen first nations, and indeed, both the cities of Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, which are working hard to protect our environment and waterways.

Over the years, our waterways have been disconnected, creating challenges for those who depend on the well-being of the Alouette watershed. This week I presented to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard my report advocating for safe fish passage for the Alouette dam as well as the Kennedy Road Pump Station in Pitt Meadows. This report comes from three years of consultations, meetings and round tables. Together we are stressing the need to ensure that both of these projects are no longer obstacles. For our salmon to thrive, there should be no barriers to their life and spawning cycles.

I look forward to working with the minister to provide long-term solutions to ensure sustainability in our communities. There is no better time to act than now.

Carbon PricingStatements By Members

2:10 p.m.

Conservative

John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON

Mr. Speaker, after three years of Liberal waste and failures, Canadians are no further ahead than they were in 2015. Adding to that, we have learned that the Liberal carbon tax will cost a family of four up to $5,000 a year. We have found out from the Liberals own documents that their carbon tax will be 15 times higher than it is now and that they plan to implement this increase after the election. In fact, we have asked the Prime Minister several times this week about this plan, and each time we asked he did not answer the question.

I have heard from the people in Barrie—lnnisfil how this tax grab will affect them, the costly impact it will have on businesses and on moms and dads driving their kids to soccer, hockey and dance, and how it will drive up the costs of heating and eating for seniors. They are rightly concerned.

While many Canadians struggle just to get by, the Prime Minister will not have to worry about paying his carbon tax on the necessities of life, because the millions in his trust fund will look after his family just fine.