Madam Speaker, as I talk about housing, I would like to also broach the subject of young people, justice and hope.
First, let us talk about our young people. They are buckling under the weight of a triple crisis: unaffordable housing, crushing debt and unemployment, which is two times higher than other generations. In fact, 59% of people under 35 report having serious housing problems. That figure is 38% for the rest of the population. Rents are skyrocketing. The cost of a two-bedroom apartment in Quebec has increased by nearly 8%, while average salaries have only increased by 4.5%. The average income of students in Quebec is approximately $16,500 per year, and they spend an average of $11,220 on housing. That does not leave much at the end of the month.
People are so desperate that 10% of student tenants report sharing a one-bedroom apartment with two other people. Worse still, unemployment among young people aged 15 to 24 soared to nearly 14% in December 2025. It reached a peak of 14.7% in September 2025. That was the highest rate in 15 years.
Youth homelessness has also been on the rise in recent years. An estimated 20% of homeless people in Canada are between the ages of 13 and 24. There are 6,000 young people experiencing homelessness every night, and 35,000 young people experiencing homelessness over the course of a year. This is a generation that is facing challenges, often unable to find housing, deeply in debt, or stuck in precarious employment.
Now let us talk about intergenerational justice. Mortgage debt remains overwhelming. The average rate has risen from 2.5% in 2020 to over 7% in 2023. When they were 25, baby boomers could easily buy a home. With just one or two modest incomes, they could make a down payment, and the payments generally represented one-third of their income. Today, young people need to save for 14 to 20 years to make a 20% down payment. Even with lower interest rates, the absolute price of housing is 10 to 15 times higher when adjusted for inflation. However, incomes have not increased 10 to 15 times. Rather, they have increased two to three times since the 1980s. The result is that, without significant parental assistance, buying a home at age 25 is often impossible for the majority of young people.
Even for me, as someone who is not a baby boomer, it was easy to do that as soon as I started working. When my group of friends and I in the Gaspé were in our 20s, no matter what work we did, it was obvious that we would become homeowners. We were going to work and buy a house. The size could vary, but access to a property was not really an issue in the early 2000s. Now, it absolutely is. These young people feel a sense of injustice that I understand and that we must address.
Let us talk about hope. There is hope; there are solutions out there. There are a multitude of programs that already exist, and the government could invest more in them. We believe that an additional $7 billion should be invested over five years in the rapid housing initiative, and an additional $1.7 billion over five years to address homelessness, which is half of what the Parliamentary Budget Officer said would be needed to reduce this tragedy by 50%. It would take an additional $1.5 billion over five years for municipal infrastructure. So there are several things we can do. There is hope, provided the government takes action.
We also believe that the federal government should transfer all of the funding for housing to Quebec with no strings attached. Quebec has already set up an affordable housing program, and we think that the federal government should contribute to it directly.
Until these things happen, the Bloc Québécois will work to streamline federal programs and try to ensure that they align with those of Quebec so that the money goes where it should, to housing for Quebeckers. In order to give hope to our young people and respond to their legitimate aspirations, we need to resolve the alignment issues between Quebec and Ottawa.
Along with the Government of Quebec, the federal government made an announcement in Quebec City on January 21. It was announced that the portion of the Canada housing infrastructure fund earmarked for Quebec was finally being transferred. It was a $1-billion announcement, but the important thing to remember is that this fund was announced in April 2024 by the Trudeau government. Unfortunately, it took until January 2026 before an agreement was reached and the funds could be released.
It is an interesting program because it enables municipalities that want to develop a residential area to seek grants to invest in sewers, water systems and roads. However, as long as Quebec City and Ottawa fail to reach an agreement and as long as Ottawa wants to impose conditions in areas that are not under its jurisdiction, it will delay things. It is easy enough to understand, and it could have a fairly direct impact. If, two years ago, municipalities had already been able to obtain funds to invest in their infrastructure, housing projects could already have been completed. Homes would already be under construction and part of the problem would be solved. However, what happened instead was a series of lengthy negotiations between the federal government, which wanted to impose its conditions, and Quebec, which wanted to defend its jurisdiction.
Housing takes a lot of effort and coordination by all the partners. I see it in my riding. Housing projects get started by organizations and municipal housing offices. Every time, these people have to do cartwheels to move their project forward while meeting the deadlines set by Quebec and the federal government. Last fall, there were times when some projects were in serious jeopardy because Quebec grew tired of waiting for a confirmation, but a federal election was in progress.
We also see that some programs are not properly aligned. That is something this government can work on. I also think that it needs to acknowledge that Quebec has jurisdiction and that its own role is to transfer funds. If that happens, each province will finally be able to set up programs the way they want. Programs will be better suited to provincial realities, and housing can get built. In any case, this is what we propose as a way to give hope, especially to our young people.
As for Bill C‑227, unfortunately, it does not address the hopes of young people and the intergenerational justice we are seeking. We, in the Bloc Québécois, oppose this bill. My colleague spoke about it a few minutes ago. This bill seeks to develop a national housing strategy for young people through consultations. It raises issues of policy consistency and public efficiency.
It is a very short bill that tells us that a national strategy will be developed and that consultations will be held. It is important to be wary of legislative bloat. We know that the government does not need a law to consult young people and the provinces. All it takes is a telephone or a computer and an email. All of my colleagues from all parties here are in fairly constant consultation with groups that have housing projects in their ridings. I am convinced of that. As for the notion of consultation in this bill, it is rather astounding.
Furthermore, developing a strategy when one has already been launched is, unfortunately, an initiative that we consider unnecessary. We believe that the Government of Canada has already consulted sufficiently. What it must do is respect Quebec's jurisdiction and transfer funds to Quebec. That is how to give the provinces the means to act to restore hope to our young people and to re-establish the intergenerational justice that we have unfortunately lost in recent years.