Debates of May 15th, 2023

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation—Main Estimates, 2023-24

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Madam Chair, the cost is now over $2,500 in York Region. It is enough to make most Canadians' eyes water. It has become far out of their reach. In York Region alone, house prices have gone up 122% since 2013. I will ask the minister something else: When is the last time he applied for a building permit?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, I respect the hon. member's history as a mayor. I respect all mayors, unlike his party leader who has called mayors incompetent. He has called them “woke” and he has attacked them and he has promised to hit their pocketbooks. Instead, we are working with mayors to build more housing supply.

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Madam Chair, just to correct the minister, I was never a mayor. I was a small business person before I got into politics.

Does the minister know personally how long it takes to apply for a building permit?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, that is exactly what the housing accelerator fund is trying to do. It is to speed up the permitting and delivery of housing. Unfortunately, the Conservatives did not support it.

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Madam Chair, I would like to know from the minister just how long it takes now to apply for a building permit.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, the Conservatives can play these games all night if they wish. Different local municipalities have different timelines for permits.

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Madam Chair, to Canadians now this is not a game. These are questions this housing minister should know as a representative of Canada. These are important issues to Canadians. For a building permit now, the time has increased from 90 days to almost a full year. This is unacceptable right now. This is due to red tape and various other things that are happening in municipalities and it is unacceptable. Builders are calling me all the time about how long it takes to get conservation authority approval, truss designs and on and on. Red tape now costs an extra $350,000 per house in somewhere like Toronto and $650,000 in Vancouver. Why has the minister's government done nothing to cut the red tape that we see now?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, nothing could be further from the truth. That is why we introduced the housing accelerator fund. It is to work with municipal governments to speed up the permitting of housing and the delivery of housing. The very red tape that the hon. member is talking about is exactly what we are addressing through the housing accelerator fund. It is a $4-billion program to invest directly in local authorities and local governments and municipalities to speed up the permitting and delivery of housing. I am surprised at this new-found concern about red tape when the Conservatives get up in the House and ask these questions, but when it comes time to actually do something about it through programs like the housing accelerator fund, they vote against those very programs.

[Scot Davidson, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Madam Chair, I can say what I would not do. I would not give the gatekeepers at CMHC $27 million in bonuses. If we look at where housing has gone in Canada, this is rewarding something that just is not happening at CMHC. Does the minister agree that, instead of finding new ways to line their pockets, the CMHC should be focused on lowering costs for housing for Canadians?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, it is right on brand for the party opposite to attack civil servants and to attack Crown corporations that are serving Canadians. The member knows, or at least ought to know, that no minister of the Crown is responsible for or able to determine the employee compensation of Crown corporations.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, I would like to ask the housing minister what the average cost of government fees per unit of housing is.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion]

Madam Chair, the party opposite and the member opposite do not even believe in Canadians' right to housing. We on this side of the House believe that. They do not. We are investing—

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Peterborough—Kawartha.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, the answer is $200,000.

I just want to tell people who are watching at home this is a situation where we, as the opposition, have an opportunity to speak on behalf of Canadians watching at home to get answers from the housing minister, because we do have a housing crisis in the country. We are trying to get answers for Canadians.

How much of the housing market is not-for-profit?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, what Canadians deserve is members of Parliament to support solutions that actually work on the ground, like the housing accelerator fund and like the rest of the programs in the national housing strategy. If the hon. member cared about these issues, she would have voted for these programs that are making real changes in the community.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, the answer is 5% of the market.

How much of the market does the national housing strategy fund?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, the hon. member and her party do not care about affordable housing, because every time we bring forth investments in affordable housing they vote against them.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, the national housing strategy only funds not-for-profit, which is 5% of the market, so how does the housing minister propose to fund and meet the demand of the housing shortage by only funding 5% of the market?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, I would invite the hon. member to actually take a second look at the national housing strategy, because that is inaccurate. We do fund private developers to also build more rental supply in Canada.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, does the minister know how much homelessness has increased in my hometown of Peterborough since 2018?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, in fact, in the time we have been in office, we have doubled funding to help people experiencing homelessness.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, the answer is 350%.

Does the minister know how many people died in the Toronto shelter system this year?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, every single individual experiencing homelessness is a tragedy for our community, but we are investing more than any government.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, the answer is over 100 people.

How many Canadians reported that homelessness is a problem in their community?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Madam Chair, the proof is in the votes. If the hon. member and her party cared about homelessness, then why did they vote against increasing investments?