Debates of May 15th, 2023

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

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, that is not true. I was not asking about the minister. I was asking about an actual senior, Gerald Brown. Maybe the minister needs to look at his emails.

The Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network has called the crisis “so severe for women and gender-diverse people that the advocate will be addressing it as one of the top human rights issues in Canada.” Will the minister acknowledge this truth, or is he going to say that what they are saying is a lie?

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

Madam Chair, of course, there is more work to be done, but I just want to remind the hon. member that we have already invested over $228 million in Winnipeg, representing over 6,266 units.

We are aware of the issue involving the sale of Lions Place, and we know that residents are concerned about it. We are committed to working with all the stakeholders to reach a conclusion.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, does the minister acknowledge that housing is a major human rights crisis?

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

Madam Chair, we are the party in government that legislated the right to housing.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, clearly he does not want to answer the question, because the minister has spent only 1% of the $438 million of the CMHC portion of the violence prevention strategy that has been in place since 2020. People are dying. Why is it taking so long?

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion (Housing)]

Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for her question. She knows very well that we are working on that. We have recognized that many women across the country are fleeing violence, and we must do more to ensure that every one of these women has housing that will give them the sense of safety they need.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, actually, the government does not care about gender-based violence. In fact, it is planning to cut $150 million from shelters. Is the government willing to revoke the $150-million cut to shelters in September?

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Madam Chair, I have a great deal of respect for my colleague, and she is quite aware of that. I visited her riding in the first few weeks after I was named parliamentary secretary.

I would like to remind her that our goal is to have 2,000 shelters for women who are fleeing—

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Winnipeg Centre.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, they are clearly unwilling to answer my question. It is going to cost lives when the government cuts that $150 million from shelters across the country.

Again, last week, the government reannounced funding for shelters, because I think that the government thinks the Canadian public is really stupid. When is it going to announce actual new funding for shelters for indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse folks?

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

Madam Chair, wow, that is the kind of over-the-top rhetoric and denial of the facts that will have the hon. member lose credibility on this issue. Is she saying $724 million over five years is not real money for women fleeing gender-based violence? Of course, there is more work to be done, but to say that we have not done anything is really unfair and inaccurate. We are doing a lot in this space and the hon. member should recognize that.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, I do recognize that the Liberals have only spent 5% of the $724.1 million and have reannounced money from that funding from 2020. He is talking about credibility when I come from a riding where we are literally searching for women who have died from violence in landfills. That is pretty bold and really demonstrates the arrogance of the government.

Going to the Winnipeg street census that is talking about the housing crisis in Winnipeg, the Winnipeg street census indicated that over half of the respondents were kids aging out of care.

Does the minister plan to fund housing for kids aging out of care, or is his government going to continue to watch kids be thrown out onto the streets?

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Madam Chair, I understand that more needs to be done. My colleague and I agree on that.

I find it rather deplorable that she cannot even acknowledge that, in her own riding, our government has worked with representatives of Velma's House.

It was to make sure that we were taking women off the streets and giving them a place to call home. That is what we did and we did that with her community with $8.4 million for Velma's House.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, I find it funny that the Women's National Housing and Homelessness Network has called this crisis so severe that it is calling it one of the great, most severe human rights crises in the country. Are we supposed to be thankful, in Winnipeg Centre, when women and girls are dying on the street, for a little tuppence that the Liberals are giving, when they are giving billions of dollars to corporations?

Again, is the government going to fund a place in Winnipeg for kids aging out of care, or is it going to watch while kids age out onto the streets?

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

Madam Chair, the hon. member would have us believe that investing $228 million to build over 6,200 housing units in Winnipeg is a pittance. Those are her words. We believe that we are delivering for provinces and territories. We are delivering for communities. We are delivering for vulnerable people. Of course, there is more work to be done, but to deny $228 million invested in Winnipeg for deeply affordable housing is a shame by the member.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, I can tell the minister what is a shame: All of my neighbours who are living in tents right by where I live. I am going to ask him again: Does his government plan on building housing for kids aging out of care? It is something that has been called a pipeline for murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, and gender-diverse people, or is he going to continue to watch kids age out on the streets?

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

Madam Chair, we have not abandoned the most vulnerable in this country. In fact, we have doubled our investments in Reaching Home from just over $2 billion to almost $4 billion to support 5,000 projects and organizations across the country that are doing the work the hon. member is talking about. We are there. We will continue to be there and we are proud of that work.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Chair, I wish I was a fridge at Loblaws because it got $12 million. What was given to housing in Winnipeg Centre in the last round when people are dying on the streets?

I am going to ask the minister again: Is he planning to invest in housing for kids aging out of care, or is the government going to continue to watch kids aging out onto the streets, something that has been called a pipeline for murdered and missing indigenous women and girls?

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Madam Chair, over 32% of the national housing strategy is focused on working with women and children to ensure they get the housing they need.

We will continue to increase funding because we want all women across the country to be safe.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Madam Chair, absolutely absent from the debate tonight is the correlation between the market-driven luxury condo spree that has been happening in this country for years and the death of our tradespeople to the opioid crisis.

On the Government of Canada' own website, it says “Men in trades: the opioid overdose crisis in Canada”. In B.C., it said, in 2020, that men's life expectancy has been down for a third straight year based on the opioid crisis. We know that this market-driven condo frenzy that has been going on in this country for the last five years is killing men in this country and there has been no discussion about it.

Does the minister agree that there is a correlation between the death of tradespeople from opioid overdoses and this frenzy of market-driven condos?

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

Madam Chair, of course, any Canadian that we lose to the overdose crisis in the country is real. Of course, we want to make sure that there is enough skilled labour to build the housing that Canadians need. We are doing everything that we can, through different measures, to make sure that this is the case. That also requires investments in local communities to make sure that more young people join the building trades and pursue a life in the construction industry.

It is something that we support and I join the hon. member in highlighting the importance of making sure that we keep people safe and that we keep people alive by investing in community programs that help people.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Madam Chair, I just want to mention that the money for mental health needs to be spent. As this government continues to talk about how they are going to get supply on the ground, they need to make sure that they have the social safety net as well.

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. parliamentary secretary on a point of order. We have to stop the clock.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Madam Chair, I would like to invite my colleague to ask questions about the national housing strategy and not about the programs that fall under the purview of the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and the Minister of Health.

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I am sure that the hon. member is going to bring it around so that the questions are on housing today.

The hon. member for Port Moody—Coquitlam.