Debates of Sept. 25th, 2023

Affordable Housing and Groceries Act

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with my hon. colleague that we are in a crisis. We need affordable housing. We need rental housing. We need homes that people can buy. We need homes that people can rent. We need to increase supply.

We have the smallest number of housing units per capita in the G7, with the most land to build on, and that is exactly why we want to see more purpose-built housing. We want to incentivize that building. We want it done efficiently, and we want it done solidly, but there is no reason it should take the kind of time it does or that the bureaucratic hoops people have to go through should add such an egregious cost to it.

We need to understand that we are in a crisis. We need more. Canadians are suffering, and this has to end.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague from South Surrey—White Rock represents a riding that has a very diverse base, and I would imagine that she has an understanding as to why this bill is very limiting on what it could do for housing in her riding.

I wonder if the member could respond to the types of housing that are needed and not addressed in this piece of legislation.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I live in one of the most beautiful spots in the country, but it is unaffordable for many people. I was door knocking recently and people would immediately get tears in their eyes, telling me how they are doing double shifts and everyone in the family is working just to try to keep the home they are already in to meet the increases in mortgage payments, which are unfathomable to them. We pay mortgages in this country with after-tax dollars, and it is very difficult for people right now.

What Conservatives are saying is that the bill could have been more comprehensive, there could have been a lot more attention paid to the kinds of things the Conservative leader is proposing, such as incentives and disincentives, to work with all levels of government to make this happen. It is going to take a coordinated, comprehensive approach to improve housing in this country, and right now too many people are operating in too many silos and the bureaucracy is adding to the costs and the delay.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in 2017, we saw the Prime Minister announce with great fanfare the national housing strategy. He said it was going to be life-changing and transformational. That was in 2017.

Since then, house prices have doubled, and we have just heard the opposition whip remind us that about nine out of 10 young people in this country do not own a home and do not believe they will ever have that opportunity. Rents have doubled in this country, and that is if someone can find a place to rent. Vacancy rates are now at an all-time low, generally hovering around 1% across the country.

Inflation is skyrocketing, which of course, means that interest rates have spiked, which caused mortgage rates to go up. Mortgages have doubled. People with variable rate mortgages have seen their payments double. Those with fixed rate mortgages who are going to renew those mortgages in the next several months or years are worried that they are not going to be able to afford their home anymore. This is in the midst of a housing crisis.

Homelessness is on the rise. There are tent communities now in cities large and small all across the country. There are new immigrants and students who are living in homeless shelters, like Covenant House in Toronto. On average, three homeless Canadians die every week on the streets of Toronto.

The national housing strategy has certainly been life-changing for many. It has been transformational, but not the transformation that I suspect the Liberals had hoped for. It is not just in the big cities, of course. I represent a smaller community. I would like to say it is as beautiful as South Surrey—White Rock, maybe more, but it is also very expensive there.

Forty percent of households in Parry Sound—Muskoka spend more than 30% of their income on shelter costs. The median employment income in Parry Sound—Muskoka is about 20% lower than the provincial average across Ontario. The vacancy rate for rentals in Muskoka is 0.65%. That means there is nothing to rent. People are stretched thin because they cannot afford to pay for groceries because of the carbon tax. I get calls every week, and I am sure everyone in the House gets these calls as well, from constituents who are facing high prices at the grocery store. They feel the pinch of the carbon tax every time they go to the grocery store, fill up their car or need to get more fuel to heat their homes.

The people in my riding do not think the Liberal government cares, and it is hard for me to tell them otherwise. With an ever-increasing carbon tax that punishes rural Canadians and the most vulnerable in our society, there is no relief in sight.

On grocery prices, it is no wonder prices are so high. There is carbon tax one and carbon tax two point zero. It is on the farmer who grows the food and the trucker who delivers the food. It is a tax on food.

Here we are today. Over the summer, the Prime Minister shuffled his cabinet and named a new Minister of Housing. Someone started to wake up and realize that there is in fact a crisis in housing, and that the government has to do something because what it has done clearly is not working. However, it was not before the Prime Minister took an opportunity, while announcing a few units in Hamilton, to deflect from his failure by saying that it is not primarily his responsibility.

It was a life-changing, transformational program in 2017. In July 2023, he told Canadians that it was not really his fault. Now today, we have Bill C-56, which is supposed to be a big new change coming to the housing portfolio. What is offered on housing in this bill?

The Liberals are finally delivering on a promise they made back in the 2015 campaign to give back the GST on the construction of new rental buildings. That is it. That is all. We were expecting big change from the new minister and big change coming from the Prime Minister. However, this is what we got.

What is not in the bill? How about some CMHC reforms? The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which reports to the government, might be one of the biggest gatekeepers in the whole country. I know lots of colleagues around the House who have heard from people in their ridings, whether it is from small community groups trying to get housing built or smaller municipalities, about the stories of anguish when they go to CMHC to try to get their ridiculously complicated funding application approved. With the bureaucratic hurdles at the CMHC and in Ottawa, they often give up. If they do get a response, they often do not even get a reason why they have been rejected.

We can see builders and community groups, which do not really have the resources to battle with the CMHC, going back to the drawing table without much guidance on what they have to do differently. It is like this, of course, because this government has allowed the CMHC to grow and grow over the last eight years, and it kills more projects that it approves.

The member for Carleton, the Leader of the Opposition, put forward a bill that Bill C-56 certainly would not address. It would provide accountability to Canadians for the CMHC in Ottawa. The CMHC would have, on average, 60 days to respond to an application. We would put the executives at the CMHC on notice. We would put their bonuses on the line and say, “You have to meet these timelines”, because in a crisis, we pull out every stop. It is a bold target, but in a housing crisis, there cannot be some bureaucrat in Ottawa who is blocking homes. They have to be looking for every way possible to get more homes built.

Speaking of targets, they are another thing that is missing from the bill before us. For too long, the federal government has been happy to give massive federal transfers to cities to help them build all kinds of infrastructure with no strings attached to get more housing built. We need to tip the scales back in favour of the builders, not the blockers, because there is a scarcity of housing. There is a huge lack of supply. There are not enough townhomes, triplexes and single family homes, and not nearly enough density around transit. We need to make housing abundant again in this country. What is missing in the bill is any target for the municipalities to meet.

The Liberals are happy to fly around the country and hand out a cheque here and a cheque there for a few hundred units here and a few hundred units there, and that is as far as it gets. They do not have targets, so we see no results. On this side of the House, we believe in results. On that side of the House, they seem to believe in photo-ops and talking points, and that is not working. We need accountability, incentives and targets.

To me, it is pretty clear that the government just does not get it. The last minister of housing could not even admit that housing was a crisis in this country. The new minister started out doing what the last minister did by trumpeting on social media about the great success they are having on housing. He then went on a little housing retreat in P.E.I. and listened to the experts, including some experts who actually proposed some pretty good ideas. Then he went to London for another retreat and teased the media on the way in about something that will be really big that we have never done before in housing. Then he came back out and announced the same old funding from a program they started a year ago, which has delivered no results. It is more of the same: meaningless photo-ops and announcements of a little bit of money. There are no plans, no targets, no goals and no results.

To the young people shafted by the government, to all the seniors on fixed incomes worried about how they are going to get by and to the new Canadians who come here and feel like they have been sold a bill of goods, I say that I am sorry we have a government that pretends to care but does not really deliver.

To the House and to the government, I say that Bill C-56 is a cruel joke. It is not serious. The Liberals give themselves lots of pats on the back, but there are no results. The proof of their failure is in the dismay of the young people who have given up the hope of owning a home. It is in the tear-filled eyes I see when seniors come to me and feel ashamed that the food bank they used to donate to is one from which they now have to get their groceries. The proof is in the tent cities, where people living in tents go to their jobs but cannot find a home. The proof is in the number of homeless Canadians who die on the streets.

There is a housing crisis in this country, and Bill C-56 is further proof that the government just does not get it.

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

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the comments from the member, and I think it is unfortunate when we say stuff like “The government does not care.” We certainly can have differences of opinion in terms of policy and the effectiveness of it, but to suggest that members do not care is, I think, disingenuous.

The member talked about CMHC and how a Conservative government would use CMHC and give it a mandate of 60 days to respond, or something like that. However, that just highlights a misunderstanding of CMHC's role in affordable housing and the way it delivers funds to projects. Organizations do not go to CMHC and say, “Here's my application; give me a yes or no.” They go to CMHC, and CMHC helps them walk through the various ways in which to apply in order to maximize the opportunity for funding in order deliver more housing. CMHC is less an agency that stamps either “yes” or “no”, and more an agency that is meant to work with the applicant. I have had my fair share of grievances with respect to CMHC, but in my community, for example, it is certainly doing exactly that and has delivered on at least seven or eight projects in the last few years.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear to me that he does not really understand how the CMHC does or does not work, and that is not surprising considering the fact that we have an agency that is charged with the responsibility of delivering this life-changing, transformational national housing strategy. It has been an abject failure and they still pay themselves massive bonuses at the end of the year for a job well done.

Honestly, that is cold comfort to the people in this country who are desperate for a warm, safe bed to sleep in at night.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague, who I respect, and I think he has good knowledge of the file.

The one thing I need to question is this relentless line from Conservatives about gatekeepers, bureaucracy and red tape. They always throw out the line, for example, that it takes 10 years to get a mine into production. I come from mining country. There is not a single investor on the planet who would open a billion-dollar operation in a mine without doing absolute due diligence, which does take 10 years to actually map out an ore body.

It is the same for getting housing right. We have seen the leaky condo scandal that cost $7 billion in B.C. We have seen the crappy concrete crisis in the U.K. that happened under Conservatives because they were not making sure that things were done right.

When I see the blame about municipalities acting as gatekeepers, in my region, they are more than ready to get these houses built, but they have to be built right.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know why his colleagues are clapping for him because he is clearly confusing zoning processes and planning applications with building inspectors.

It should not take six years to get a piece of property rezoned to what someone wants, which is the exact same thing that is next door and on either side of the property. Making sure the building is built properly has nothing to do with zoning and it has nothing to do with planning applications, but it has everything to do with the building inspectors.

I do not know about mines, but I know about housing. The zoning process will have no impact on whether there are leaky pipes in the building or not.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

We have a point of order from the hon. deputy House leader.

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

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to make sure we are talking about zoning and building permits. Am I in a city council chamber right now or is this a federal House of—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

That is debate. It is well understood there are a number of mayors sitting in this chamber.

The hon. member for Hamilton East—Stoney Creek.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the common-sense legislation theme today sounds a lot like the common-sense revolution under Mike Harris. Members may recall those days when another Conservative government at another level downloaded municipal non-profit housing to municipalities, and they have been stuck with that cost ever since.

Why can the member opposite and his party not see fit to support programs for the seniors he talked about and for those people who are on affordable housing wait-lists across the country? That is not their plan. Their plan is more like the Mike Harris days from the 1990s.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I was on a municipal council when that downloading happened. The reason that was downloaded is because the federal government was reducing transfers to provinces because of the outrageous spending of the first Trudeau government, the downturn and the global economy. They stopped building housing. Of course, that trickle-down effect impacted municipalities the most. I know that member, who was on city council, knows exactly what I am talking about.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Winnipeg North.

I rise today to speak at second reading to Bill C-56, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act; also known as the affordable housing and groceries act. I believe this is an important and very much needed piece of legislation. Before I get into the specific measures contained in this bill, I would like to speak to the global economic situation that makes some of the measures contained in this bill necessary.

The world is experiencing a global inflation crisis. Canada is not an island, and we are not immune to the factors that are driving high prices around the world. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, from supply chain challenges to climate change impacting harvests and causing crop failures, inflation is an inescapable global phenomenon. Compared to our G7 allies, Canada has fared very well. In August, Canada's inflation rate was measured at 4% according to the data published by the Financial Times. This is just behind Japan and almost tied with the United States and compares to 6.7% in the United Kingdom, 6.1% in Germany and 5.4% in Italy.

COVID-19 was an unforeseen and unimagined global crisis. The world essentially ground to a halt. Canada has fared relatively well through the pandemic recovery, thanks to the resiliency of the Canadian economy and in part to the programs to support Canadians and business owners to allow them to keep paying their bills when we had to stay at home and many business owners had to close their doors. Without that support, I shudder to think of where we would be now.

However, just because Canada is doing better than many of our peer countries, that does not make the impact on the day-to-day lives of regular Canadians any less real. Several factors are driving rates in Canada, including energy prices and food prices. I have had many meetings on the issue of affordability. I have heard this loud and clear from my constituents in Scarborough Centre. It was a consistent theme whether I met them at local events or on their doorsteps or in my constituency office: People are hurting and people are worried. More and more Canadians are having difficulty making ends meet. They are having to stretch every paycheque further and further.

Access to affordable, suitable housing has been a problem in our community for far too long. Rents are out of control, home ownership is for many an elusive dream. Interest rates are high and it costs so much more just to cover the necessities of life like putting food on the table. Grocery bills have skyrocketed.

The Grace Place Church operates one of several food banks in my community, and Pastor Amos tells me that demand has increased from 14,000 visits per month during the pandemic to 20,000 per month today. This is not sustainable. I have taken these messages to the government and I am pleased to say that, with Bill C-56, the government is listening. No one measure or measures will be the silver bullet, but the steps outlined in this legislation would have a meaningful impact.

Let me speak first to housing, which is an issue I have raised several times in this House. We need to be clear and unequivocal: There is a housing crisis in this country. We need to build more housing of all kinds. We need to build houses and rental units. We need more affordable housing of all types. We need to build senior homes and long-term care and student housing. We need more supply, and it needs to be affordable as well as accessible. We need more smart density housing, especially around the transit hubs.

There are many reasons for the housing crisis, and one thing must be clear: We cannot solve it alone. Every level of government has a role to play. The federal government, the provinces and the municipalities all have levers and responsibilities and all must come to the table, put politics aside and work for the good of all Canadians. As a federal government, we have limited levers, but we do have a big one: We have money. We need to come to the table with serious dollars; we expect the provinces to match the amounts or at least make major contributions.

However, if we just put money on the table we will have failed. In health care, we use federal funding to enforce national standards of care. Likewise, with housing, we need to make federal dollars contingent on specific changes needed to address the housing crisis and make housing more affordable.

We have already seen this with the government's housing accelerator fund. By making municipalities agree to loosening residential zoning restrictions to allow for more density and accelerating affordable housing projects as a condition to receive federal funding, our government would use federal dollars to help drive change at the municipal level, which would see more smart density and more affordable homes built. It is an important step to addressing housing affordability.

Clearly we need to do more, and with this bill, we would be building on the steps we have taken. I am glad we are tackling the issue of rental units, which are a critical part of our housing ecosystems. They are the choice for students who are away to study, for young people just starting their careers, for newcomers making their start in our country and for seniors looking to downsize but who still want to be independent.

The cost of rent is too high for too many now. That is why we are acting with specific measures on Bill C-56. To build more rental housing faster, we would remove the GST on new rental housing, such as apartment buildings, student housing and senior residences. This would accelerate much needed rental housing builds across Canada.

As well, we are calling on provinces to also waive the provincial sales tax on new apartments. I am so glad to see the Province of Ontario immediately agree to follow our lead, and I hope all other provinces follow suit. This would help rental housing get built faster and encourage new builds to break ground. New supply will help to increase competition and moderate prices. Already, housing experts say that this change will take many rental building projects out of the planning stage and into construction by making building rental units more attractive than before, rather than simply building more condominiums.

Tim Richter, CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, said, “It's the federal government being very serious about taking some meaningful and muscular steps to address the housing crisis.”

This is one important measure, but it is not going to solve every issue in the housing market. It is not meant to. We cannot just do one thing; we need to do all the things. We all need to come to the table, and we all need to act now.

Let me turn my attention now to the more basic issue of affordability. We have taken many actions over the years to make life more affordable, especially for the middle class and those working hard to join it. The Canada child benefit has put more money into the pockets of Canadian families that need help the most every quarter. Thanks in part to this tax-free, income-based support for low- to middle-income families with children, there were 782,000 fewer children living in poverty in 2020 compared to 2015. That is a big deal. I have heard from many families in my riding how the CCB has literally been life-changing.

Another major step we took, in co-operation with the provinces but largely funded by the federal government, has been the Canada-wide early learning and child care program. In Ontario, for most families, child care costs have already been cut in half and will soon go down to $10 a day. This is saving families thousands of dollars. We also continue to expand dental care for lower income Canadians, starting with children and seniors.

These measures have been impactful, but with inflation driving up the cost of everyday life, we need to do more. I have spoken to food bank operators in my riding. Demand spiked through the pandemic and is still high today.

That is why we are also taking action to stabilize grocery prices. High grocery prices have made it tougher for many Canadians and their families, all while grocers are increasing their profits. We are acting in both the near and medium terms.

The one-time grocery rebate delivered up to $467 to a family to help them put food on the table. Last week, the Deputy Prime Minister and the industry minister met the CEOs of the five major grocers and made it clear that we expect concrete measures on how they can stabilize food prices with a plan by Thanksgiving. We will make it easier to crack down on unfair practices that drive up prices and make it harder for local grocers to compete to protect Canadians and help them with the cost of groceries.

I look forward to the debate on this bill. I look forward to constructive suggestions on how it can be made better, and I look forward to working with all parliamentarians to make life more affordable for all Canadians.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Scarborough Centre's riding and my riding are right next to each other. A lot of the demographics between the two are similar.

I know that the Conservatives voted against dental care for children. They voted against a $500 rebate for groceries. They also voted against subsidies to help people in apartments. I know that in my community, those were very valuable incentives for people going through a pretty challenging time.

I would just like to know this from the member: What was the response like in her community for programs that helped people during these difficult times?

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I had conversations during the summer with my constituents, and they are finding it very difficult to make ends meet. When I talk to them, they tell me what a difference the Canada child benefit and the $10-a-day child care program are making by saving them thousands of dollars each month. I know that dental care is very important. I have been talking to many of my constituents who have been able to take their young kids to a dentist, which they were not able to afford before.

It is very important that we continue investing in these programs like the $10-a-day child care, the Canada child benefit and dental care, and that we make sure we do more to make life affordable for all Canadians.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is a good day, I think, in Canada when the House, Parliament, can speak to the crisis that so many people are facing when it comes to housing, groceries and affordability. It is no secret, however, that companies, particularly monopolies and oligopolies, have tremendous power in this country. That is evidenced by many indigenous people. For example, I grew up with stories of the Hudson's Bay Company, a monopoly in Canada, one that demanded, for example, an unlimited amount of fur in exchange for one good. It said that someone would have to pile up their fur as high as a rifle in order to get that rifle, an unrealistic measure of wealth.

Today, Canadians are dealing with the same kind of strong-arm companies that are saying we need to pay more for housing, we need to pay more for telecoms and we need to pay more for groceries. The same people who are asking for this are just a few names in a room, not many people, just a few CEOs of these megacorporations. These megacorporations need to be held accountable. They are oligopolies. They are gouging Canadians.

That is why New Democrats have been steadfast in our call for a windfall tax, something that has been taking place in Conservative countries like the U.K., for example, that would disincentivize companies from price gouging Canadians at a time of crisis when groceries are going up like they are, when housing is going up like it is and when food is at such an unrealistic price. It is time for a windfall tax so we can make these billionaires pay their fair share and equal the playing field.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is very important that we work together and act now to make life affordable for all Canadians. I heard that very clearly from constituents in my riding during the summertime. People are finding it difficult. That is why it is important that we work together to pass Bill C-56, which would make a difference.

That is why the minister of industry called the five CEOs of the major grocery companies to come to Ottawa, to tell them that it is really very important that we work together to stabilize the price of groceries. I am sure that by Thanksgiving, they will show us some results. If not, we are ready to take other measures to make sure the price of food stabilizes for all Canadians and we can make life more affordable for them.

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

Mr. Speaker, I just want to follow up on the message that my colleague from Edmonton Griesbach just shared with the House. CEOs in this country are making outsized incomes, and their corporations are making outsized profits. This is not actually helping Canadians get more affordable groceries and certainly not more affordable housing.

My question to the member is around rental housing and the GST rebate. How can Canadians be sure that any savings these developers are making, if there are developers involved, get passed down to their renters?

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, reducing or eliminating the GST from the construction of purpose-built rental units will give relief to people. It will definitely make a difference. I know that prices will not go down just with doing one thing or another thing. We need a comprehensive plan. This is one major step that will really make a difference in making housing more affordable for people.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I know members are a little upset—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay is rising on a point of order.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to rag the puck here but if it is less than five minutes, I think it would be fair for all of us to see the clock at 6:30.

Would we need unanimous consent for that or would we just need a majority of members in the House?

I think it would be very helpful in order to have us all leave on a good point on Monday but I defer to my colleagues.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I would be remiss if I did not allow the hon. member to at least get some of his thoughts out, so that we can listen less next time, when we do come back and talk to this bill.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-56 is very important legislation that we are debating. If we just reflect, in terms of our homes and our constituents, people are genuinely concerned about issues of housing affordability, the housing supply, inflation and the price of groceries.

That is what Bill C-56 is all about. It is recognizing that the constituents we are collectively representing are having a difficult time. That is why we have Bill C-56. I hope that all members, from all sides of the House, will recognize that this is legislation that not only should pass but should pass in a relatively quick fashion, in order to support the people of Canada from coast to coast to coast.

In listening to all of the debate, I want to emphasize to those who might be following it that the government has been on the housing file now for many years. In fact, it is this government, more than any other government in generations, that has made a commitment to invest in housing. We are not talking one sector alone but rather, whether it is free market, non-profits or investing in stakeholders, virtually from day one, as a government, we have been investing in housing in Canada, unprecedented in comparison to any other government in generations.

All one needs to look at are some of our more recent budgets. Members often talk about the important role of non-profits. Take a look at what we are doing in housing co-ops, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to encourage additional housing co-ops to be built. It is a wonderful form of housing.

We could talk about the millions and millions invested into non-profits. We could talk about the rapid transition housing. Having the ability to support housing needs has always been important to this government.

We see what is taking place in our communities. This initiative, this legislation, is actually now being looked at by provincial jurisdictions, and some of them are adopting it as provincial policy, which will see thousands of homes being built.

I would like to think that all members will look at that holistic approach that the government has been taking, the specifics of this legislation, and get behind it.