Madam Speaker, I was a little shocked to hear the hon. member call some of our programs and the things we stand for and have been implementing, “all of [those] care programs”, as if they can be lumped into some nebulous, unintelligible phrase. It seems to me a shame that he does not understand the value of pharmacare, dental care, mental health care and the health care investments we have made. All of the care programs he has spoken of are designed to help lift people up, care for them and help with the affordability challenges that Canadians are facing. Maybe that is just an aside.
I would like to get back to the heart of the member's question, which I think was focused, at least from what was tabled in the House, on the housing crisis. I can assure the member that the crisis is not unique to Manitoba and is not unique to any part of this country; it is actually all across the country. The housing crisis has been around since long before the current government was in power.
In fact, the current government put forward the national housing strategy. One of the reasons I stepped up in 2019 and put my name on a ballot was that for the first time in 30 years, I saw a federal government willing to invest in housing in a meaningful way. It made a big, bold commitment to reducing homelessness, to helping solve the affordable housing challenges that Canadians were facing. The plan, with significant investments of over $70 billion over 10 years, was a really big reason for my wanting to get involved in politics.
Certainly, the housing challenges have morphed and changed, and the market has shifted. I admit that there are significant challenges. I feel passionate about this issue. I feel compassion for every Canadian who either cannot afford to buy a home or who is struggling with affordability challenges and is at risk of homelessness. That is something the government takes very seriously. We have put effort, time and energy into developing a strategy and implementing real solutions, not slogans, like “axe the tax”, which are false signifiers that have no meaning and are going to help not one person with getting housed in this country.
We are waiving GST on new rental construction. We are helping non-profits purchase housing stock that would otherwise become unaffordable or be bought up. We are helping co-operatives develop more housing with $1.5 billion in support for them. We are working with municipalities through the housing accelerator fund to make it easier and faster to get shovels in the ground and to improve medium density and other forms of housing density that will lower the cost for Canadians. We have just made mortgage rule changes that will help more and more Canadians access a lower-cost mortgage. Individuals who rent will be able to have their responsible rental history count toward their acquiring a mortgage in the future.
These are all positive steps and real solutions that are helping people, not to mention the historic investment we have made in the national housing strategy that has helped over 500,000 Canadians right across this country to get housing, or to maintain or repair housing if it was in disarray.