Mr. Speaker, imagine taking the GST off of all new homes under $1.3 million. That would instantly save 5%. With a 5% savings, that would have encouraged thousands of Canadians right across the country to build new homes. By partnering with Canadians, we could have stretched our dollar by 95%, by having that 5% incentive.
Instead of letting Canadians keep their own money, the Liberals keep taxing things like housing, things they often call a human right. They then give that money to corporations and landlords to build homes, not for young people to actually own but for them to rent. Own nothing and be happy: that is the slogan of the Liberals' plan for their new world order. Young people do not want to rent for their whole lives. They want to own a home, a place where they can paint their kids' bedroom, a place that gives them pride and hope for the future, a place where they can build a fence for their dog.
Housing is not just about shelter. It is about economic stability. It is about mental health. It is about whether young people can make a wooden box a home. In my province, we face the highest unemployment rate in the country. We add that to rising rents and rising prices and limited supply, and young people are being forced to make unfavourable choices. Some are staying with their parents. Some are even staying with their grandparents. These are young men and women, oftentimes older than myself, working full time, yet they still have to face these unfavourable choices.
Unfortunately, we are seeing even greater consequences of the lost Liberal decade. Homelessness, once unthinkable at this scale, especially in my province, is now a reality in communities right across my province and the whole country. Over the summer, I was able to have a tour of a Salvation Army homeless shelter in St. John's. I began to ask the workers at the facility what had led to people being there.
I remember one young lady looked at me and said that all those men had just hit their breaking point. The shelter sees these kinds of surges when the economy goes bad. They lose their jobs and that causes stress. They oftentimes lose their wives and their family because of that stress, and they end up there. Her statement stuck with me because of the simple fact that what we do here in Ottawa does not just affect our economy; it affects real people. It does not just affect housing stats and unemployment. It affects real people, real Canadians, people who are hurting and looking for hope.
How long will these Liberals keep hiding in their haunted house of smoke and mirrors before they admit that more bureaucracy will not build a single home? Canadians do not need another illusion. They need a real home.