Debates of Nov. 1st, 2024

Housing

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and to the Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, we are catching a glimpse of what those members would do if they were ever fortunate enough to sit on this side of the House. The Conservatives would gut the programs that municipalities have been asking us to deliver to help them speed up the process of building more affordable homes for Canadians, which is truly appalling. What would the member opposite say to Mayor David West when he says that it would be a shame to put that funding into jeopardy?

How can the Conservatives stand up in this House and claim that they have a better solution to the affordable housing crisis than us? We have the most comprehensive plan in Canadian history.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of this Prime Minister, the cost of housing has skyrocketed. He broke the Canadian promise that if a young person worked hard, they would earn a good paycheque, be able to put food on the table and buy a home in which to raise their family.

We have learned from Mouvement Desjardins that, today, young people have to wait 10 to 15 years longer than their parents before they can become homeowners.

Will the Prime Minister, with the support of the Bloc Québécois, accept our proposal to help these young people by eliminating the GST on new houses and condos?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity]

Mr. Speaker, affordable housing is a priority for our government. The Conservative Party has no plan for affordable housing.

It is very clear what the Conservatives want to do. They want to cut tax on million-dollar condos and then put in jeopardy truly affordable housing. We want to make sure everybody can afford a home, whether they are buying a condo. renting in a co-operative or needing to access shelter space. Once again, the Conservatives are making it abundantly clear to Canadians who they are. They do not care about people who are struggling to pay their bills. They do not care about people who are renting their homes or living in co-operatives or shelter spaces. They just want to help the wealthy.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the result of what the “Liberal Bloc” has done is clear to see. It doubled rent, doubled mortgage payments and doubled the amount needed for a down payment. The Prime Minister is proposing to add even more red tape, even more costs.

What the Conservative leader is proposing is to eliminate the GST on any affordable housing that costs from zero to one million dollars. All of those homes would be GST-free. According to the Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec this initiative is a step in the right direction.

Will the Prime Minister put an end to his photo-op programs that are not building homes and also take a step in the right direction?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity]

Mr. Speaker, we already know the leader of the opposition does not know how to build affordable housing. When he was the minister of housing, he only built six affordable houses. The Conservatives do not even know the definition of affordable homes. They do not know that people actually need a place to rent before they buy. They do not know there are programs like rent-to-buy, or rent geared to income, that actually exist.

Our government has invested billions in new co-operative housing. The other thing is that Conservative premiers have not had a housing plan. The Conservative leader of Ontario, for example, has cut funding for affordable housing. Truly affordable housing is not million-dollar condos.

International Trade

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow will mark 500 days since the House adopted Bill C‑282, which seeks to protect supply management in trade agreements. People are wondering why two Liberal-appointed senators, Peter Boehm and Peter Harder, are filibustering so hard.

We may have gotten a clue yesterday, when former Liberal minister John Manley, a prominent member of Jean Chrétien's government, compared our farmers to the NRA gun lobby. He said that we should ignore them and that passing Bill C‑282 would turn Canada into North Korea.

Did he basically say aloud what the Liberals are thinking?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague is fully aware that just over 50 years ago, the Liberal government established the supply management program. My hon. colleague is well aware that over the last 50 years, we have fully supported the supply management program. We have supported and will continue to support the supply management program, and push our colleagues in the other place to pass Bill C-282.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Mr. Speaker, after 500 days of filibustering, we have to wonder whether Peter Boehm and Peter Harder are part of a Liberal anti-supply-management movement, along with John Manley.

Comparing our farmers to the deadliest lobby in the United States is insulting. Comparing the protection of our human-scale agriculture sector to totalitarianism is outrageous beyond words. All of this comes from a key figure in the government of Jean Chrétien, who arguably had quite an influence on the Liberal Party.

Will the Liberals unequivocally condemn John Manley's comments and call on the Senate to pass Bill C‑282?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure my hon. colleague I am well aware of the importance of the supply management program. I milked cows for half of my life. I am well aware what supply management means to the agricultural sector and to this country. I can assure my hon. colleague we will continue to support supply management, and we will continue to push the Senate to pass Bill C-282.

The Economy

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, news is breaking today that Brookfield Asset Management, a multitentacled everything corporation chaired by Mark “carbon tax” Carney, will be moving its head office out of Canada. This news comes after reports that for several years, Brookfield's effective tax rate will be well below the new global minimum tax rate of 15%. Carney is the Liberals' senior economic adviser.

Why are the Liberals letting Canada's economy be run by a man who puts profit over people?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, here it is again. If someone is not a Conservative, they are on a hit list. They are going to be identified, attacked and vilified. It does not matter what their contributions were to their country or the world, their character will be maligned and attacked. That is exactly what this is: an ad hominem, baseless attack to try to intimidate and scare people from providing commentary and ideas to this government. That is what Mark Carney is doing. He is providing his thoughts and ideas on a voluntary basis to this government. What Conservatives are trying to do is intimidate anybody from giving good advice.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that Mark “carbon tax” Carney is moving Brookfield's headquarters to Wall Street to avoid paying Canadian tax. The reality is that Mark “carbon tax” Carney gets paid more if Brookfield pays less tax. The reality is that while he is helping his company pay less corporate tax, he wants every Canadian to pay more carbon tax.

Why are the Liberals letting Canada's economy again be run by a man who clearly puts profit over people?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting, the Conservatives were not attacking this individual before he offered to help and give ideas on a voluntary basis. As soon as he identified he wants to support the country by offering economic advice, they want to attack him, because anybody who has ideas who does not support them becomes a villain, becomes somebody to attack. That is the kind of country they want to create, where either a person is a friend or is an enemy. Either they agree with Conservatives or they attack Conservatives. Mark Carney has made incredible contributions to this country and to this world. They should be ashamed of the way they are behaving.

Government Accountability

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, carbon tax Carney is the Prime Minister's top economic adviser, and he is moving his trillion-dollar international investment firm out of Canada and to another country. Carbon tax Carney will now be advising the Liberal Prime Minister from Wall Street. These two economic vandals have quadrupled the carbon tax on Canadians, while carbon tax Carney is jet-setting off to New York City. It is profits over people, while the Prime Minister exempts carbon tax Carney from Canada's conflict of interest laws.

Why is the Prime Minister exempting now conflict of interest Carney from ethics laws while he operates his company from Wall Street?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that member, from reading his statement, has spent his day trying to malign the character of a good Canadian. I can tell members I am not reading notes right now, because I spent my morning working on pharmacare and dental care and trying to connect care to people. I wonder if he would go and say to his constituents, “You know what I did today? I attacked the character of a wonderful Canadian. I spent my morning thinking of ways to come up with slogans and attack lines for somebody who served his country and the world.” That is not how I spent my morning. I spent my morning thinking about Canadians.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that minister and his government spent their morning making life more unaffordable for Canadians, sending record numbers of Canadians to line up at food banks, doubling mortgages and doubling rents. That is the record of the Liberal government and the failure of a health minister, with a record number of Canadians who do not have a doctor. As for this exemplary Canadian they claim in conflict of interest, carbon tax Carney, let us talk about what he did since he got that job. He got Brookfield into negotiations for $10 billion Canadian tax dollars. His credit card company, Stripe, is now gouging Canadian small businesses and he has been exposed for lobbying illegally U.K. ministers in the heat pump hustle. It is unacceptable.

When can we have a carbon tax election?

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and to the Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, we are used to that member playing politics in this House and attacking and maligning the character of great Canadians, but let me reference a member that these individuals on the Conservative benches like to quote over and over again. Yesterday, the “food professor”, Sylvain Charlebois, at the INDU committee, said that climate change is the agri-food sector's “greatest challenge” and that we need to address it, which is very interesting, because as we listen to the Conservatives every day complain and holler about food prices in this country, we would think they had a plan or some form of solution, but they do not have a plan to—

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

The hon. member for Vancouver East.

Government Priorities

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians cannot find a family doctor, and labour shortages in construction are driving up the cost of housing. The Liberals betrayed migrant workers with their empty promises that they would give them full status, including those in construction and health care. To add insult to injury, the Liberals are allocating a pathetic 50 spots for regularization in their 2025 levels plan. It is literally not worth the paper it is written on.

Just what sort of sick joke is this?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, coming out of the pandemic, health workforce issues around the globe were incredibly serious. A CIHI report just came out, which showed that Canada is leading the world coming out of the pandemic. When it comes to surgical wait times and surgical wait-lists returning to the levels of before the pandemic, the CIHI report also showed that almost every jurisdiction in the country has more doctors and more nurses. We also were able to—

[An hon. member]

Not true.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

That is 100% true.

Mr. Speaker, what else is true is that this is before we signed a deal with every province and every territory to put in $200 billion. That data is before the dollars that we have actioned to move forward on health care.

Post-Secondary Education

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I recently met with a health care worker in Terrace, whose job as a psychiatric occupational therapist is critical in addressing the toxic drug and mental health crises in our communities. She is the only graduate from her class who is working in a northern rural community, but here is the thing: The government's student loan forgiveness program excludes occupational therapists. This is clearly an oversight.

Very simply, will the government correct its error and ensure that people like this person in Terrace, B.C., get the loan forgiveness that they so deserve?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I was with the member in Terrace, and he is absolutely right that there are very significant challenges in rural and remote communities. I am absolutely looking forward to talking to him on that issue. Our loan forgiveness program for doctors and nurses and hygienists and physiotherapists has been a tremendous success in helping with workforce issues. I want to expand that, but I would call on him to work with us on health data because it is one of the main things that can help us in rural and remote communities.

Right now, the Conservatives have taken Parliament hostage. They will not allow a data bill to move forward, which will save lives, is critically needed and is non-partisan. Let us get to work and pass that bill.

Democratic Institutions

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

Mr. Speaker, foreign interference is on the rise, and so is the spread of misinformation. In fact, there have been disturbing allegations this past week that parliamentarians are collaborating with foreign actors.

Can the government please set the record straight for all Canadians?