Madam Speaker, I am delighted to join the debate in reply to the throne speech. When I heard the government deliver the throne speech, I thought, what has the government been doing since it prorogued the House? Surely the speech is more than just reciting commitments on a variety of different topics, and to their standard, which is to always make commitments on a variety of issues and then to never deliver on them. Sure enough, as I listened to the throne speech, it was a repeat of that pattern yet again.
I was looking to hear the government address the issue and the crisis that many small businesses are faced with. I know that I am not the only person in my riding who has businesses that are struggling with this. For example, they were looking for the government to say that the commercial rent subsidy program is not working and that the Liberals would ensure and allow small businesses to apply for the commercial rent subsidy. They did not hear that. It was not in the throne speech, even though the government should have acted whether or not it was in the throne speech.
The small business community has waited and waited. It has been more than six months and still there is no action with respect to that. So many of the businesses in my riding had to close because that help was not forthcoming. Even this week, I had constituents phoning and contacting me, saying, “Please help, we need the federal government to come to the table and allow us to apply for the commercial rent subsidy because our landlords will not do it.” They are being penalized for that and they are suffering. If we do not support the small business community to survive this, all of us will be impacted and the recovery for the economy will be that much longer and that much slower. That needs to change.
The other thing I was hoping to hear was that the government would do something to address a critical issue in my riding of Vancouver East. It is an issue that has been brought to their attention, but the scale of which applies to other communities as well. The PNE in my riding is a 110-year-old institution. It has been left out of pandemic help from the federal government and as a result of that the institution may not survive the pandemic. It is a fair in our community that has provided thousands of jobs to young people.
The throne speech talked about the value of young people and the need to support them. How about ensuring that the PNE survives the pandemic? It hires thousands of young people every summer for employment. Throughout the course of the year, it has some 4,200 workers engaged with the PNE. If we do not take action to save the PNE, we will lose this historic institution, the economic driver that it is in our community, the supports for young people and the enjoyment of so many families across the Lower Mainland and beyond. I was looking for the federal government to do something for institutions like that, yet it failed again.
Similarly, we have a beautiful Chinatown in Vancouver. The federal government acknowledged the value and the history of it by declaring it a national historic site, yet there was no help for Chinatown, even though the federal government saw fit to provide support to Granville Island as it should. However, I was calling on a variety of different ministers to support Chinatown and to ensure it can survive the pandemic, but no help came to Chinatown. It too was left to battle the issue on its own, yet this is a national treasure, which the federal government by its own admission has acknowledged and recognized as a national historic site.
Why would the federal government not provide the much-needed help that is required for the survival of Chinatown, as well as other sectors that are desperate for help from the federal government?
My colleague just before me talked about gig workers in the performance arts industry. They were the first to shut down in the pandemic and fear that they will be the last to reopen. They need help from the federal government not only to survive the pandemic, but to move beyond it. The government can take real action to ensure that industries have the supports they need to get through the pandemic and thrive in the future.
In the throne speech, the federal government talked about housing. I listened very hard to its message. There was a lot of vague language and promises that it has yet to deliver on.
Take a look at the national housing strategy. The Prime Minister announced with much fanfare back in 2017 that adequate housing is a basic human right, yet we just have to look around the community to see people who are homeless today. They are desperate to get into safe, secure, affordable housing, especially in the face of a pandemic. We talked about the prescription for safety required to flatten the curve: social distancing, washing hands, all of those measures. However, many people cannot access them because they do not have a home to go to.
I have the largest encampment in the entire country in my riding of Vancouver East. Both people in the Strathcona encampment, as well as the residents in the neighbourhood, are absolutely desperate for the federal government to come and help them,
The Government of British Columbia has reached out to the federal government on a number of occasions. I, myself, with the mayor of Vancouver and MLA Melanie Mark, wrote to the minister before the election. We called for the minister to step up, be a partner and join the city, community and non-profits to address this crisis. To this day, there has been no help from the federal government to address this crisis.
We are at a crisis here in Strathcona on all levels, from safety, health and security points of view. The winter months are coming. The rain is coming. The wet, cold weather is coming. How can it be that we would allow people to live in a camp at this time in the middle of a pandemic?
The federal government said that it would have a pandemic response to address the housing crisis. Just prior to the throne speech it had made an announcement of 3,000 units of rapid housing. Let me just put that in context. In Vancouver alone, based on the last count of homeless people, we have more than 2,000 people who are homeless today, so 3,000 units is not going to cut it. It is entirely deficient to address the housing crisis across the country.
My riding is not the only riding with a homeless encampment. Encampments can be found throughout the entire country. The government needs to do more than just say that adequate housing is a basic human right. It needs to act, delivering a flow of money while creating programs that are accessible. It needs to address this housing crisis in an effective way instead of just with words.
The throne speech—