Madam Speaker, it is an honour for me today to rise in response to the Speech from the Throne that was presented by the Governor General in the other House on November 23, 2021. In her opening comments, the Governor General made reference to the recent flooding in the Fraser Valley and in southern British Columbia. The memories were very fresh at that time and they are still very fresh today.
I want to start on a positive note. I agree with the statement made in the Governor General's opening remarks when she said, “But in a time of crisis, we know how Canadians respond. We step up and we are there for each other.”
I agree with that. There are many examples of Canadians stepping up to help each other in this time of crisis. People were working day and night, sandbagging and trying to protect farms, buildings and equipment. There were farmers helping other farmers rescue their cattle and getting them onto higher ground.
There are many examples of churches and other charitable organizations stepping up and helping their neighbours, making very generous donations and financial contributions to emergency relief for those who needed it the most.
I am thinking also of the Sikh Guru Nanak's Free Kitchen, which is always there to help people in times of need and supply food. I am also thinking of pilots with private airplanes operating out of Langley Airport in my riding, flying rescue missions to Hope and to the interior of British Columbia, to rescue people and bring food and supplies. It is people like that who make us all proud to be Canadians.
I also want to highlight the work of an exemplary corporate citizen in my riding, the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of British Columbia. This a company created by farmers for farmers. During its now more than 100-year history, that is exactly what it has been. This company is on the hook for millions of dollars, because it has insured so many farms in the Fraser Valley, but it is happy to step up to honour its commitments and to pay out on insurance premiums. That is what the company is: farmers helping farmers.
On top of that, this great corporation has also made a very generous donation of almost half a million dollars beyond its legal obligation to do so, to help those most in need and who are perhaps without insurance.
This is what Canadians do. Yes, we are all very proud of them.
The Speech from the Throne goes on to state what the government has been doing. It says, “The government will continue to be there for the people of British Columbia.” Sadly, the government was not there in response to the many studies done after the 1990 flooding. We were all very aware of the needs to preserve the diking, to enhance and seismically upgrade the dikes. There was report after report, and no action.
The most recent report is dated November 2020, commissioned by the City of Abbotsford, and it estimated the cost of repair and enhancing the diking system to be somewhere between $339 million and $580 million. That sounds like a lot of money but it is pocket change compared to the billions of dollars that the rehabilitation of the farmland in Sumas Prairie and throughout southern British Columbia is going to cost. The railroads, highways, private farms and homes, and road systems throughout are going to cost billions of dollars.
The government seems not to have learned a very basic lesson that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Just like the government fails time and time again to achieve its very ambitious and lofty Paris Agreement goals, so too it has been absent when the need for us to adapt to climate change reality is glaringly obvious.
I want to pivot to what the Speech from the Throne says about housing. The housing affordability crisis in metro Vancouver is ground zero of that crisis. The speech says, “Whether it is building more units per year, increasing affordable housing, or ending chronic homelessness, the government is committed to working with its partners to get real results.”
Let me tell members about real results that ordinary Canadians have been waiting for, and are running out of patience that they will ever arise.
I was speaking with Alison in my riding just the other day, and she and her partner have been doing everything right. They want to buy a townhouse in Langley. They have saved a lot of money for a down payment and earn pretty good money. They pre-qualified for a mortgage and they understand the housing market. They have been bidding, hoping to get a house, yet in one bid after another they have failed. They have bid on a property 10 times and 10 times they have failed. For the most recent bid, they decided to go way over asking price and they failed.
She is giving up hope. She is asking what she is doing wrong. I said she is not doing anything wrong; it is the government that does not understand the basic economic principles that are driving up housing costs. If the cost of something is too high, then supply is not keeping up with demand, so build more homes.
There is another thing that our federal government does not seem to get. The Liberals did not anticipate what pumping billions of dollars of liquidity into the marketplace in response to the pandemic was going to do to inflation. There is billions of dollars of cash out there, and that is partially what is driving up prices.
An idea the government could adopt from the Conservative Party's platform is to restrict the sale of homes to Canadians, rather than allow foreign investors to buy. I do not know how many of these 10 houses that Alison bid on went to a foreign investor, but it is a safe guess to say that foreign money has been driving up prices in Canada, making it nearly impossible for young families to buy a home.
That is an idea the government could adopt from the Conservative platform. There are two ideas, as a matter of fact. First, increase the supply and work with other levels of government to find a way to increase the supply so that it meets demand. Second, adopt our proposal for a two-year ban on foreign investment in new housing. These are two great ideas. Please adopt them.
I want to refer to what the Speech from the Throne says about truth and reconciliation. It says, “We know that reconciliation cannot come without truth. As the Government continues to respond to the Calls to Action, it will invest in that truth, including with the creation of a national monument to honour survivors”.
I have spoken with residential school survivors who live in my riding, Kwantlen First Nation people, right next door to beautiful and historic Fort Langley. For them the memories are fresh, the pain is real and the anger is just below the surface. I asked what the government could do to help and what I could do as their member of Parliament to help. I did not ask them what they thought about a monument. I had not read that, and maybe a monument is a good idea. I will ask them the next time I meet them. However, this is what they told me they need and what their children are telling me they need: They want local care for seniors designed by first nations for first nations at home on reserve, not in an institution. The survivors of residential schools do not trust government-sponsored institutions. They do not want institutional care. What they are looking for is long-term care on reserve.
A study was brought to my attention, a report of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs, from the 42nd Parliament, dated December 2018. It is entitled “The Challenges of Delivering Continuing Care in First Nations Communities”, and I suspect it is just sitting on the shelf and being ignored. The people in my community are well aware of it and have found some very interesting things in it. As the member of Parliament for Langley—Aldergrove, I will be advocating for them and their community to get them what they need: real, true reconciliation and long-term care for seniors on reserve.
