Debates of June 4th, 2019

Poverty

[Brigitte Sansoucy, NDP, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased that the parliamentary secretary took the time this evening to point out that there are still 1.4 million children living in poverty in Canada.

Tonight, I am more specifically concerned about poverty among seniors because they write to me every week. The hour is late, 12:20 a.m., but it is also the eleventh hour for seniors living in poverty, because they are at the end of their lives. We need to meet their needs now.

My colleague from North Island—Powell River introduced a bill that would make it possible to do that immediately. The bill would not even have to be passed. The government could take action to prevent the temporary suspension of the guaranteed income supplement for seniors and should do so immediately.

Seniors should not have their guaranteed income suspended. We are talking about the poorest seniors in our society.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Madam Speaker, as I said, not only have we appointed a minister of seniors to ensure we focus our efforts to alleviate poverty among senior, but we have also taken other concrete steps, such as the reduction of the retirement age from 67 to 65. We have also targeted senior housing as part of the national housing strategy, with 12,000 units of housing dedicated for seniors to ensure they have an affordable place to live in their later years. In addition, we put in place improvements to GIS and have fixed CPP moving forward. We have also taken steps to allow seniors to earn more, without having their CPP clawed back.

The notion that we are resting on our laurels is just not true. We recognize that since we have set targets for reducing poverty, despite achieving some earlier, means we have more work to do. We can now focus on some of the more stubborn forms of poverty, such as those among indigenous Canadians, racialized Canadians and rural Canadians. It is clear that the generalized programs do not necessarily work in those cases and specific ones now must be applied.

Social Development

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour for me to once again rise in the House, even at this late hour, to debate some very important issues facing the people of Drummond.

I am here tonight for the adjournment debate because I wanted to come back to a question that I asked the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development about the difficulties that Canadians are facing on a daily basis and the way the Liberal government treats ordinary Canadians relative to rich corporate executives. When rich corporate executives ask for help, the Liberals come to their rescue. They bend over backwards to meet the demands of the wealthy, the much-talked-about 1% of our society. It is really unfair. The Liberals seem to have two sets of rules: one set for the wealthiest members of our society and another for everyone else, who has to wait.

I can give some very specific examples. On May 30, the CBC reported that some wealthy clients of KPMG, an accounting firm that serves the wealthiest one per cent, were accused of using a fraudulent scheme to avoid paying taxes and reached an out-of-court settlement with the Canada Revenue Agency. They paid no penalties, and do not have to repay hardly any taxes. It is an out-of-court settlement. They are protecting rich fraudsters.

When people in my riding make a mistake on their tax return, they immediately receive a letter sometimes accusing them of fraud and demanding immediate repayment of the full amount, with interest. The rich get off with an out-of-court settlement.

The Liberals said they would fight tax havens. However, during their term in office, they signed agreements with notorious tax havens such as Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda. These are two notorious tax havens in the Caribbean. When it comes to tax havens, the Liberals do not have the solution because they are part of the problem.

I mentioned other examples that will help Canadians and the people of the greater Drummond area. The homelessness partnering strategy, or HPS, and the Canada-Quebec agreement come to mind. According to the Table des partenaires en itinérance de Drummondville, the federal government's current approach flies in the face of the priorities, needs and practices on the ground. That is why the organization and other community groups want the homelessness partnering strategy to take a comprehensive community-based approach to fighting homelessness and wants to maintain that approach.

Will the Liberal government finally crack down on tax havens and take a comprehensive community-based approach to fighting homelessness in order to meet the needs of ordinary Canadians?

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families]

Madam Speaker, the member opposite asked about the approach we are going to take to fight homelessness. I can tell him two very clear things.

The first is that the $55-billion national housing strategy is in full flight right now. It is not coming after the next election but it is being spent on the ground, in real communities as we speak.

There have been one million investments made by this government, to the tune of $7 billion, that have paired, housed and subsidized Canadians right across the country. There were more than a million families involved in that process. That is the best way to end homelessness.

Let us compare the two parties on the homelessness file. The NDP, in the last election, produced a manifesto that was I guess focused on what it perceived to be the critical issue of homelessness and housing in this country. In years two, three and four, the party opposite promised to spend zero dollars, zero dollars and zero dollars on new housing in this country. Let us let that sink in for a minute. Then what happened was the—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Unfortunately, the member's time is up.

I am sorry; the timer was wrong. It will be readjusted and I will let the member continue.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Madam Speaker, as I was saying, the party opposite in its platform promised zero, zero and zero dollars. Zero dollars to build housing in this country for something it now terms a crisis. It was a crisis three years ago, four years ago and five years ago; it is why I ran.

One thing that frustrates me about the NDP policy is the investments it was not going to make in homelessness. The NDP was going to increase spending on homelessness by the federal government by a measly $10 million. That is it, $10 million a year was your platform, and now you lecture us on how much we are not spending.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I remind the member that even in the late shows, he is to address the questions and comments to the Chair.

The hon. member can continue.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Madam Speaker, the NDP's plan for homelessness was to spend only an additional $10 million. We have put $2.2 billion on the table for that program, and on an annual basis, our spending is 10 times what the NDP promised. We still get lectured on why we have not done enough to fight homelessness, even though it promised to do one-tenth of what we put on the table.

In terms of the reaching home program, it was reprofiled specifically to highlight the extraordinary achievements that have been made in the province of Quebec, which has a holistic approach to homelessness and focus on prevention and permanent solutions, and does not make homeless people live on the streets or in shelters for six months before they will be supported.

We leaned heavily on the advice that was given to us by members of the advisory panel that came from that promise, which showed us a better way to fight homelessness. Some of those results are built right into the reaching home strategy. For example, we no longer require 65% of the reaching home program to be spent specifically on rent. That is going to be replaced by the Canada housing benefit, an $8.4-billion program partnered with the provinces for rent supplements.

On the reaching home file, those dollars can now be used for services to wrap around people to get keep them housed. As well, those dollars can be used to keep people housed with supports they may need in order to not fall into the most destitute situations we find on city streets right across the country.

We have listened to the homelessness advocates out of Quebec. We have responded directly to the demands they made of this government. Not only did we listen to them, we funded them. I go back to that campaign platform. On what planet, let alone what country, city or street does a $10-million investment solve homelessness? In the city of Ottawa alone, the increase to fight indigenous homelessness is $8 million.

The NDP has now chosen to follow Doug Ford with slogans about housing, with no program design, no mention of indigenous people and no dollar signs attached to it. They can print all the bumper stickers they want. The reality is that housing advocates need two things: funding and flexibility. With this government, $55 billion has been delivered, new rules have been written that respond to the criticisms that the member just listed and we are very proud of our record on housing. I would be embarrassed to have run on the NDP platform.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that, in February 2019, the Liberal Party voted against the NDP motion calling on the government to act quickly and create 500,000 decent affordable housing units over the next 10 years.

With regard to the homelessness partnering strategy, I want to congratulate the Drummond RCM's partners in homelessness as well as community groups in the greater Drummond area who are responsible for implementing the strategy, groups such as the Carrefour d'entraide Drummond inc., Comptoir alimentaire Drummond, l'Ensoleilvent, Maison Habit-Action, Refuge La Piaule, Réseau d'aide le Tremplin, and the Fondation de la Tablée populaire.

My colleague seems to be saying that the government is going to do what these organizations are asking for. In our region, we absolutely need to maintain a holistic community approach to conquering homelessness.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Madam Speaker, we have delivered a holistic, community-based approach to fighting homelessness through the reaching home strategy. It builds on some of the very good work being done in communities in Quebec, which are providing real leadership in the way to wrap around services to keep people housed.

The national housing strategy aims to lift 500,000 Canadians out of core housing need, with a program that builds, repairs, subsidizes and grows over time. As housing is built, subsidies have to built over time. If one does not back-end load the housing program, one ends up building housing with no supports for people, and that does not work.

In terms of the NDP proposal, to build 500,000 homes, if one had the labour and construction capacity to do that, and without any subsidies, the program cost would be $175 billion to get to 80% of market. That is the NDP program. It is a slogan, it is not a program. The reality is that the national housing strategy is delivering to get to the 500,000 target. We are repairing, investing and we are making sure Canadians get their housing needs met. We are proud of that policy.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until later today at 2 p.m. pursuant to order made on Tuesday, May 28 and pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 12:34 a.m.)