Debates of June 8th, 2021

Opposition Motion—Housing Policy

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Madam Speaker, I am sure all hon. colleagues can agree that a principal residence is for living in and providing a family with a roof over their heads. That is the most important aspect of a principal residence. The fact the Liberals are saying they have done things to reduce money laundering is blatantly false. There are no regulations around beneficial ownership, and that is a critical gap that industry and economists alike have identified, as well as the fact that many of Canada's current FINTRAC anti-money laundering laws are failing to be enforced despite investments and much needed—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. She is right to say that we need to address the lack of access to housing. For example, Carleton-sur-Mer, in my riding, wants to attract more young families and more people to the area. This unfortunately is not happening because these people need to buy a house once they arrive, which is not always possible for a young person who does not have the money. This is a problem we see often.

The motion offers a number of potential solutions, which is good. However, we think the solution is rather simple. Housing is the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces, so the federal government should transfer the money directly to Quebec so it can work with the municipalities to find solutions. What does my colleague think about the idea of transferring the money as a solution?

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. It is so important to figure out why young people are unable to become homeowners.

Largely, it is because they do not have stable and steady incomes. We are seeing youth disproportionately affected by precarious employment, so while we need to talk about the availability and affordability of housing, what we also cannot overlook is the fact that we need to have incomes that are commensurate and not have precarious employment. I think it is our responsibility as parliamentarians to look to our youth and help them in providing that more secure path.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, when we talk about supply, in my city we have building permits, cranes dotting the sky and condos being built everywhere and simultaneously there is an increasing number of residents in Hamilton Centre who are being pushed out and living in tents and informal settlements across the city. This opposition day motion, in part (e), talks about overhauling the government's housing policy to substantively increase the housing supply, yet the Conservatives decreased investments in co-ops and social housing and did not announce any plans. Will the Conservatives finally admit this opposition day motion completely overlooks social housing and real affordability for the next generation of Canadians?

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Madam Speaker, this opposition day motion calls on the government to have a national housing strategy that does better in all aspects. It is not just one aspect, because housing needs to be looked at in its entirety.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Madam Speaker, before I begin discussing the motion at hand, I would like to give my condolences to the family that was attacked in London on Sunday evening. Four people were attacked and killed by an individual who was only motivated by hate for this innocent family, solely due to their Islamic faith. This kind of violence does not belong in the world, let alone in Canada.

Targeting men, women and children solely due to their beliefs is an act of hatred, pure and simple. It is something that cannot be tolerated in a free and just society, and my heart goes out to the family. We owe them, as a society, to work together to find a cure once and for all.

To begin with the issue of the day, I can say with confidence that one of the biggest challenges Canadians face in their lives right now is the cost of housing. Frankly, when I look at some of the real estate prices in some of Canada's largest cities, I struggle to think of how I would pay for one of those homes, and I am not talking about mansions here. Even starter homes are starting to get ridiculously expensive in this country. I took a look at some of Vancouver's real estate listings, and my mind was blown.

I think the cheapest house I found was two bedrooms and a little over 900 square feet for just under $500,000. I took a look at some of the listings in Toronto, and it was even worse. I could not find a single house available for under $500,000, just small condos or apartments.

One of the most ridiculous listings was a 500-square-foot bachelor pad for $500,000. That is about the size of my office back in my constituency, and I can barely fit my desk in there. I have no idea how someone would fit their entire life into something that size.

As I mentioned, the cost of housing is one of the biggest problems that Canadians are facing in their lives right now. I know that my colleagues the hon. member for Regina—Qu'Appelle and the hon. member for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon wrote an update published in the Toronto Sun last week that discussed a lot of the causes of the, frankly, ridiculous cost of housing in this country. Obviously, I think it raised several good points, otherwise I would not be discussing them personally, and I think many Canadians would agree with this once they take a minute or two to think it over. The lack of supply of housing in Canada is one of their most compelling arguments.

I did the math, and from 2009 to 2019, the population of our country grew by 10.5%. That is about four million new Canadians. Obviously, there will be plenty of families in there, so I am not saying that we need four million new homes, but the lack of supply of housing is pretty well documented. This lack of housing supply has had some pretty clear consequences for Canadians.

The price of housing has boomed in nearly every major city in the country, with Edmonton and Calgary proving to be the only exceptions. Toronto, for instance, has seen the price of housing triple over the past 15 years. I think that goes a long way to explaining the 500-square-foot room for $500,000. Ultimately, I think that represents a national tragedy. The cost of housing in many of Canada's cities is, in many ways, an exclusionary barrier to families that are looking to fulfill their dreams of owning their own homes.

I am sure that this is similar for many Canadians as well as many of our colleagues, but I grew up with this dream. It is a pretty simple one, but simplicity carries universality. It is a classic dream to grow up, find a job, fall in love, start a family and buy one's own home to live in with that family.

I am fortunate that I have been able to fulfill that dream. I am sure it is similar for some of my colleagues, or maybe most of my colleagues, but it is not a similar story for a lot of Canadians. There are thousands of families across the country that are blocked from fulfilling that dream because of the cost of housing.

Maybe all people can afford now is to rent an apartment, or they cannot afford a big enough house so their children can live comfortably. Maybe they are forced to live in a bad neighbourhood where it is not safe for their kids to play outside because it is all they can afford.

Just as important, this is not just a barrier for families. It is a barrier for students who are moving away from home for the first time. It is a barrier for recent graduates looking for a new home as they enter the job market. It is a barrier for seniors who are looking to downsize after their retirement. It is a barrier to every Canadian from coast to coast. It is a slap in the face to all of them, quite frankly, especially with the ongoing pandemic, meaning that Canadians have been struggling while real estate prices keep chugging up and up.

The prohibitive cost of housing in many of Canada's cities is, frankly, a barrier that people are struggling to cross. It is not like a chain-link fence that we find at schoolyards. It is much closer to the walls of Jericho, tall, imposing and not crossable, but just like biblical walls, these walls can be brought down.

However, we cannot do it through the failed infrastructure and housing support programs of the government. We need to increase the supply of housing in our major cities. It is logical that our population cannot continue to grow while our housing supply barely adds new homes for Canadians. It is simple, but it is more than that.

While this is unique in every city across the country, there is a substantial amount of red tape and municipal regulations that prevent the construction of new housing. While we obviously cannot legislate municipal affairs, the federal government can work with the provincial governments and municipalities to improve the situation. We can encourage cities to cut red tape and make building new homes easier to alleviate the supply issues in many of our larger cities.

The federal government already issues gas tax rebates, carbon tax rebates and more to municipal governments. Why not other transfers such as from the thus far useless infrastructure bank or any one of the other dozens of programs? The municipal rules and regulations are a massive driver of the increase in housing prices and, to top it off, are all the government's failed programs.

Back in the 1980s, there was a tax rebate program for building new homes called the multiple unit residential building program. In today's dollars, it cost $9,000 per home built in foregone government revenue. I would say that is pretty good. The Liberal government's equivalent, the rapid housing initiative, costs 23 times that per home. That is with the $9,000 adjusted for inflation.

Clearly the government's current approach is not working. Clearly it is not helping Canadians afford homes. That is why we need a different approach. It is clear that the government needs to stop the endless, poorly thought-out infrastructure program. It is clear that the made-in-Ottawa programs are not working.

Despite all of the government programs designed to make affording down payments easier, and all the various tax credits related to home ownership, the walls remain up. It is time to stop marching around the city. It is time to blow our horns and tackle the issues of lack of supply and over-regulation of housing construction. It will bring down the wall of prohibitive housing costs in Canada's major cities.

This is what we need to do to make housing more affordable for Canada and Canadians. This is what we need to do to make sure that Canadians can fulfill their dream of home ownership. That is what my Conservative colleagues and I support, so Canadians right now or 50 years from now can fulfill their dreams.

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

Madam Speaker, if the Conservatives' climate plan was a pamphlet, this set of policies is a postcard. It is astonishing.

I really wish that the Conservatives would make these speeches at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities because, when they talk about gutting municipal regulation and gutting the rules and the planning criteria around housing, what they are talking about is eliminating the planning that is done to make sure we build the right kind of housing in the right places to the right standards to house Canadians safely and affordably in communities that are functional.

When they talk about gutting the development charges attached to new construction builds, what they are talking about is taking away the libraries, the schools, the roads, the clean water and all of the infrastructure that makes a house viable in a community.

The Conservatives do not have a policy. They have a bunch of slogans. It is like listening to people talk about the weather. They are finally talking about housing, but they do not actually have a plan to do anything about supply, cost, affordability, security or how it gets done. In fact, all they want to do is attack municipalities. If they delivered this speech at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities last week, they would have been laughed out of the room.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Madam Speaker, it seems as though the hon. member is coming from a different planet altogether. He is still stuck too much in the past. Every time we suggest something, we are trying to help the government. We are trying to help find solutions for Canadians. The hon. member is always stuck in his own pity politics. He is living in the past, and he cannot move on from there.

What I am saying is simple. If their policies are working, and if their plan is working, why do we have a problem? The member knows it is not a normal problem, and Canadians know how much Canadians are suffering. If one talks to any average Canadian, whether over the screen or in real life, the first thing they will talk about is how confused, uncomfortable and unhappy they are with what is going on with the housing market.

This is my answer to the hon. member. Let us work together to find a solution. Our motion today is nothing but a step in that direction.

[Caroline Desbiens, Bloc, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. The Bloc Québécois mostly agrees with the Conservative Party on this. There is a social housing crisis, and we must do something about it.

Social housing in my riding of Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix has its own realities, but they are not the same in Charlevoix, in Côte-de-Beaupré, in Beauport or in Quebec City.

The Bloc Québécois is concerned that the federal government is looking into this issue, when I believe that Quebec is in a better position to do so and is more familiar with the situation. Quebec is in a position to implement the social housing principles.

The Bloc Québécois is suggesting that the government give Quebec its share of the money for social housing and allow Quebec to allocate it.

What does my colleague think about that?

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Madam Speaker, I agree that maybe one size would not fit all. That may not be the solution. There are different provinces, different jurisdictions and different cities. That is why I mentioned in my speech that the prices in Edmonton and Calgary are still way, way behind compared to Toronto or Vancouver. Probably the only two exceptions to this are Calgary and Edmonton right now.

We need to find solutions. At the end of the day, this is a national crisis, and we must all be stepping up to make sure we find the solutions and help the government to deal with it.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am happy to talk about housing here today because housing is the crisis in my community. In my home town of Penticton, the average cost of a single family home is $800,000. That is almost twice what it is in Edmonton, yet the average income for a single person is in the $30,000 range.

People cannot even dream to afford to buy a house. There is no rental stock. There is certainly no subsidized housing stock, so if people lose their rental suite because the landlord wants to cash in on these prices, they are homeless. They are out on street.

We have had working families in that situation. I do not see anything in—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

I apologize, but I have to ask the hon. member for Edmonton Manning to give a short answer.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Madam Speaker, I visit British Columbia all the time, although not right now, but I am very familiar with it. Yes, we do have a problem. It is everybody's problem, and we have to make sure we find solutions.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue]

Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the distinguished member for Kingston and the Islands.

Before I begin my speech, I would like to pay my respects to the four Canadians who were taken from their family and friends. This absolutely breaks my heart. I know all Canadians have their thoughts with this family and with the nine-year-old boy for whom we all wish a full recovery. May light overcome such darkness, and, yes, we must root out all forms of discrimination, including Islamophobia. It needs to be called out. It needs to be condemned. At this time, we all stand shoulder to shoulder with Muslim Canadians across this country.

I am pleased to contribute to this very important debate that we are having, as this issue impacts all Canadians from coast to coast. I would like to thank the hon. member for raising the issue of housing. It is a frustrating period for many Canadians who are trying to purchase their first home. High housing costs, especially in urban centres, continue to put financial pressure on many middle-class and low-income Canadians. COVID-19 has exacerbated existing housing affordability and homelessness issues and the public health risks of substandard and crowded living quarters.

This government knows that a long-term plan for a faster-growing Canadian economy must include housing that is affordable for Canadians, especially young families. Stable housing is critical for communities and for a strong middle class. Affordable housing is also essential for economic fairness and growth.

Investments to make housing more affordable for the most vulnerable, coupled with measures to limit foreign speculation in the housing market, will help ensure that our economic recovery is an inclusive one that helps more people join the middle class.

That is why the government has a plan as part of budget 2021 to invest $2.5 billion and reallocate $1.3 billion in existing funding to speed up the construction, repair or support of 35,000 affordable housing units.

Since 2015, this government has made historic investments to increase supply and make housing more affordable. For example, under Canada's first national housing strategy, we are on track to deliver over $70 billion in investments by 2027-28 that will support the construction of up to 160,000 affordable homes and increase Canada's housing supply.

We also introduced the rapid housing initiative to address urgent housing needs for vulnerable Canadians in all regions of Canada. The $1-billion program will be expanded with an additional $1.5-billion allocation from budget 2021.

At least 25% of that money will go towards women-focused housing projects. Overall, this new funding will add a minimum of 4,500 new affordable units to Canada's housing supply, building on the 4,700 units already funded.

The funding is available to municipalities, provinces and territories, indigenous governing bodies and organizations, and non-profit organizations. Funding will be used for the construction of modular housing as well as for the acquisition of land and for converting existing buildings into affordable housing units. Most recently, the federal government announced it is aligning the minimum qualifying rate for insured mortgages with that for uninsured mortgages, subject to review and periodic adjustment, that being the greater of the borrower's mortgage contract rate plus 2%, or 5.25%. This will apply to insured mortgages approved as of June 1, 2021.

The government also recently expanded access to the first-time home buyer incentive to make sure more middle-class Canadians in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria and cities of the like can benefit from this support. The program reduces a first-time home buyer's mortgage payments to make buying a home more affordable.

Another factor contributing to unaffordable housing prices for many Canadians in some of our biggest cities is speculative demand from foreign non-resident investors. That is why on January 1, 2022, the government will introduce Canada's first national tax on vacant and under-used residential property owned by non-resident non-Canadians. Houses should not be a passive investment vehicle for offshore money. They should be homes for Canadian families, many of whom reside in my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge.

The tax will require owners other than Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada to file a declaration as to the current use of the property, with significant penalties for failure to file. Revenues generated through this tax will help support the government's significant investments in making housing more affordable for all Canadians.

I would like to turn back to some of the other housing measures contained in the budget. Budget 2021 proposes $600 million over seven years to renew and expand the affordable housing innovation fund. To date, this program has committed funding to support the creation of over 17,600 units, including more than 16,300 affordable housing units and units for persons with accessibility challenges. This new funding would support the creation of up to 12,700 more units.

This is an investment of $315.4 million over seven years through the Canada housing benefit to increase direct financial assistance for low-income women and children fleeing violence to help with their rent payments.

The budget also proposes $118.2 million over seven years through the federal community housing initiative, to support community housing providers that deliver long-term housing to many of our most vulnerable.

Of the $1.3 billion of previously announced funding that has been reallocated, $750 million under the national housing co-investment fund will accelerate the creation of 3,400 units and the repair of 13,700 units. Some $250 million under this program will support the construction, repair and operating costs of an estimated 560 units of transitional housing and shelter spaces for women and children fleeing violence.

We are providing $300 million through the rental construction financing initiative, which will be allocated to support the conversion of vacant commercial property into housing. This funding will target the conversion of excess commercial property space into 800 units of market-based rental housing.

This government also recognizes that access to safe and sustainable housing can be particularly challenging in the north. Therefore, budget 2021 proposes to provide $25 million each to the governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut to address housing priorities.

Our government is focused on ensuring that Canadians are able to have an affordable and safe place to call home. The measures I have outlined will help Canadians find affordable housing, spur job creation and local economic recovery, alleviate cost pressures in the housing market overall and grow the middle class.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Madam Speaker, one of the first events I attended as a member of Parliament was a briefing by the Canada Revenue Agency at the tax offices in Vancouver, organized by the parliamentary secretary. The tax specialists were telling us about all the new convictions that they were bringing forward related to money laundering and people who were not following Canadian laws in the real estate sector as well.

The member mentioned in his discourse about a beneficial ownership registry. What laws will need to be changed to implement a beneficial ownership registry? What laws does the member believe need to be strengthened to better combat money laundering in Canada?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Madam Speaker, I would first like to thank the member for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon for bringing the opposition motion to the floor today.

As we all know, housing is a very important issue, but we also know that we need to ensure that money laundering is dealt with. I am really glad to say that the Canada Revenue Agency, through our government over the last number of years, has been provided the funds, tools and the necessary investments to combat money laundering. We actually set up at the CRA separate teams to investigate real estate fraud and money-laundering transactions in British Columbia specifically.

I am glad to see that the member opposite recognizes the efforts of the Canada Revenue Agency and our government.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Madam Speaker, I have a question for my colleague, the parliamentary secretary.

What does he think of the motion, which calls for the first-time home buyer incentive to be replaced? What is the problem with that program, and how can it be improved? More importantly, how can a first-time home buyer measure be put in place to ensure that young Canadians can also become homeowners?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Madam Speaker, we have introduced the first-time home buyer measure that is supporting Canadians across the country. We are going to continue to support young families who wish to purchase a home in whichever city they wish to live in this blessed country.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, we will be supporting the motion, but we know that tax incentives alone have never addressed homelessness or housing affordability anywhere in the world.

This is a crisis. This is a situation where Canadians have seen the average price of a home go up 30%. We have over 250,000 people who are homeless every year on the streets in Canada. The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness is saying that to even have a fighting chance we have to build 300,000 new, permanent, affordable and supportive purpose built housing units. We are losing housing more than we are building housing right now in this country.

The Liberals' current plan is to build 160,000 homes over the next 10 years. Will my colleague support increasing that to 500,000 units so that we can actually ensure that people have safe, secure housing in this country, and ensure that nobody is homeless on the streets of this country, a wealthy country like Canada where that should never happen?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Courtenay—Alberni for his passion for our combined desire to end homelessness from coast to coast to coast.

On chronic homelessness, we are battling it, and we are making progress. If the member looks at the recent update on the national housing strategy that was produced, he will see where we are making fantastic progress in ending homelessness.

We will not rest until every single Canadian has a roof over their head and is in a safe and secure spot that they can call home.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to speak to affordable housing, which is such an important topic, and the impacts, and what various levels of government can do to contribute to affordable housing throughout Canada.

It is most important to identify at the outset that, in my opinion, affordable housing is so much more than just social housing. I heard NDP members today talk about social housing as being a need and a requirement, and indeed to some degree it is. However, quite frankly, affordable housing spans the spectrum from helping people with home ownership right to rent geared to income, and basically everything in between. When we look at affordable housing, we need to make sure that policies we bring forward and what we do have an impact throughout that spectrum. If we try to focus on just one end of the spectrum, we are not going to have an impact. If we try to focus on just home ownership, as this motion appears to do, I do not think we are going to have a decent impact on what it means to Canadians, and in particular to those who are struggling right now, to find housing.

I really enjoy discussions on affordable housing. It is near and dear to me personally. My introduction to politics, long before I was even on city council or mayor of Kingston, was being a representative on the affordable housing development committee that the City of Kingston set up to distribute funds to various affordable housing projects throughout Kingston back in, I believe, 2004-05. That initiative was brought forward by the Liberal Government of Ontario at that time. It wanted and saw the need to build affordable housing.

One thing we discovered early on is that when it comes to affordable housing, the best type of housing one can build is mixed integrated housing. There is always the temptation when building affordable housing to build as much as possible to house as many people as possible. This was a very popular way of doing things in the sixties, seventies and even into the eighties for that matter, when the federal government and provincial governments were involved in building housing complexes. However, the unfortunate reality, as we discovered, is that quite often when we do this, we do not end up with good housing. We end up with, unfortunately, the stigmatization of ghettoized housing. We are not helping those living in this situation, and certainly are not helping the stereotypes associated with low-income renters, when everybody is put together in one area. When we start to integrate people into various settings, we expose those who are on affordable housing assistance to those who are not, and we get a certain degree of appreciation and respect for the situation people might be in.

The model we really enjoyed deploying in Kingston said that if a developer was going to build an 80-unit apartment building, why do we not move in and fund 20% of the units in it? We used the provincial government's money at the time. As a requirement for assisting in the development of a certain number of those units, the rent had to be capped to a certain percentage of the CMHC rent for Kingston at the time. The more money someone received, the lower the rent had to be. If someone received $20,000 per unit, perhaps they were capped at 80% of market rent, or if someone received $50,000 per unit, perhaps they were capped at 50% of CMHC market rent. Then, of course, the developer had to commit to that for a certain period of time.

This removed the taxpayer's burden of being responsible for the physical infrastructure and put that on the developer. It also ensured that rent geared to income was available, so that by going through the various housing lists that exist in Ontario, people were allocated spots. What was the most important part about it? By ensuring that only 20 units scattered throughout an 80-unit building were affordable housing units, we did not create the ghettos, so to speak, that were very popular for previous governments back in the sixties and seventies to build, as I indicated. I have always said that the best type of affordable housing is housing that people do not know is affordable, because it blends into the community so well that people do not realize their neighbours might be the recipients of housing initiative funding, in particular for affordable housing.

I know we have been bringing up commitments from the previous Conservative government a lot. The minister certainly did in question period. There have been some discussions and arguments about how they do not really matter because they were from six or seven years ago. However, I think this is important because it gives a pretty good indication, at least in my opinion, of where we would go if we returned to a day when a Conservative government is in power. We would revert to a lot of those previous policies.

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, I see the member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke is applauding that idea, but I do not like those policies. I do not think they are effective; nor do they genuinely improve the affordable housing situation in Canada.

We can highlight what was going on back then. When I was on that affordable housing development committee, a fraction of the money came from the federal government. The vast majority of it came from the provincial government in Ontario. As has been referenced here several times, the previous Conservative government was only giving $250 million per year for affordable housing throughout the entire country.

Let us say we used one of the models I previously referenced, and we encouraged a developer to build affordable units in a building that it is currently building. Let us say we gave $40,000 per unit. That would equate to only just over 6,000 affordable housing units in the entire country. That is the entire program, never mind all the other parts of the affordable housing strategy that I previously mentioned about affordable mortgages and rent geared to income. All of these components are part of it.

That is why I am extremely proud to be part of a government that has taken seriously the challenge of affordable housing since day one. We have looked at the challenge not just as an individual problem like the NDP does, primarily with people who need their rent to be geared to their income, but also from an incentive perspective to get people into home ownership.

Certainly we are having struggles now. The situation has indeed changed over the last year or so, and in particular when it comes to properties that are purchased and stay vacant, which are a place for people to park their money. Quite often it is foreign investors who are parking their money in properties and keeping the properties vacant. That is a real issue, and I can see the absolute need to address it. That is why it was great to see the Minister of Finance propose, in the budget, a tax on vacant land, which will start in 2022. It will be interesting to see if the Conservatives are going to support that, as they certainly have not supported the budget to this point.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of trying to control and address the issue. The national housing strategy, on its own, is worth $70 billion over 10 years. It started in 2017. We have been working in collaboration with CMHC to deliver funds to specific projects throughout the entire country to make sure that resources are there. There is the rapid housing initiative, or the strategy intended for incentives for construction. I think there is $300 million to incentivize construction to turn over vacant commercial properties, and various other properties that could be turned over in a very quick manner, to utilize the space for affordable housing.

I have no doubt that there will always be more we can do. This is not a very easy issue. It is not an issue that one particular action is going to completely resolve. This is something that is going to take a lot of time. However, I am very proud of the work that has been done by this government over the last six years. I lived through, as I previously indicated, the previous government's programs.

I will leave it there. I look forward to questions from my colleagues.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Madam Speaker, I have a good friend who lives in the member's riding, and they were telling me about how hot the market is in Kingston. My mind turns to the young graduate from Queen's University who was finishing a graduate degree and trying to start a family, but the cost of housing has increased by literally $200,000 over the last year. The member focused his remarks almost exclusively on social housing, but CMHC has indicated that there is no way we can address the affordability crisis we are facing in Canada unless we do something with the private sector.

Why is the government so reticent to even mention the possibility of working with the private sector to address supply? All of the major economists and a lot of analysts across Canada are saying to do this.