Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to rise today for the second time in 2026 on behalf of the people of Les Pays-d'en-Haut.
We are studying Bill C-227, an act to establish a national strategy on housing for young Canadians. The bill speaks to me personally. I have two children, aged 20 and 23, who are in university. They have to pay exorbitant amounts of money for housing in Montreal. In the coming years, they will have to find another place to live or buy their first home.
Bill C‑227 would require the minister to consult with other levels of government as well as stakeholders to develop a national strategy on housing for young people and ensure greater access to affordable and secure housing. We all know that coordination between levels of government is crucial to get results. During my time as mayor of a small municipality, I worked with the provincial and federal governments on a project to build 30 housing units for seniors, and I can confidently say that the complexity of the programs and the time it takes for files to be processed discourage those who want to create housing, whether they are municipalities or non-profit organizations. In our case, five years passed between the initial announcement and the completion of the project. We need to do better.
Bill C-227 aims to develop a coordinated national strategy to examine these unique barriers and identify targeted solutions in collaboration with provinces, territories and municipalities. That is what is needed now.
Speaking more specifically about young people, young Canadians today are faced with a housing market that is unlike anything we have seen before. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a home, even a rental. The result is a generation that is struggling to put down roots. This challenge is being felt across Quebec and Canada. Without affordable housing options, young Canadians are faced with difficult decisions, such as turning down a job that is too far away, delaying starting a family or feeling disadvantaged compared to previous generations. This undermines Canada's long-term productivity and economic growth.
To address these issues, two things need to be done: more money must be put in the pockets of young Canadians, and housing must be built. In the past nine months, our government has done exactly that, and I would like to outline the measures we have put in place to promote affordability for all Canadians and to enable young people to pay their mortgage or rent. As soon as we were elected, we eliminated the carbon tax for individuals. We have made generational progress for Quebeckers, notably by granting a tax reduction for the middle class, which allows Quebeckers to keep more money in their pockets. We are talking about savings of approximately $800 per family.
To reduce the upfront cost of buying a new home for young people and stimulate new home construction across the country, we eliminated the GST for first-time homebuyers. That represents savings of up to $50,000. That is very encouraging. We also know that the FHSA, the tax-free first home savings account, is an extraordinary program. My children contribute to it, as do many young Canadians. It represents tax-sheltered savings of nearly $40,000 toward our young people's first home.
Canadians work hard to afford housing, but high mortgage payments are a barrier to first-time home ownership, especially for young people. That is why we have relaxed certain mortgage criteria to allow more young people to qualify for a loan. More recently, we announced the new Canada groceries and essentials benefit to protect Canadians' purchasing power. We will put more money directly into the pockets of millions of families. This allowance will benefit more than 12 million Canadians. Child care and dental care programs and school breakfasts will also help ease the financial burden on families.
In addition to proposing all these measures to make life more affordable for Canadians, we have also been working on building homes.
We have created Build Canada Homes, a new federal agency that will finance and build affordable housing on a large scale. It will also act as a catalyst for a more productive residential construction industry. This is a bold approach that will have positive spin-offs for young people across Canada.
One of our government's key commitments is to double the pace of housing construction in Canada to 500,000 units in 10 years. By combining access to federal land, development expertise and financing under one roof, Build Canada Homes will enable us to build new housing more quickly and easily. As of today, 4,000 homes will be built on federal land, with a significant portion of that being affordable housing.
In Quebec, things are also moving forward. We have a shared commitment to take action to increase the province's housing supply. The governments of Canada and Quebec are stepping up their collaboration to accelerate housing construction and support community development. Through a joint collaboration table, the two governments will work together to fund housing projects aligned with their shared priorities, to simplify and accelerate approval processes and to ensure better coordination between municipal and community partners.
That is exactly the spirit behind Bill C-227. As the former mayor of a small municipality and an engineer by trade, I am well aware that all of these new housing units will have to be serviced by roads, water systems and sewers. Recognizing that accelerating housing construction requires major infrastructure investments, the Government of Quebec and the federal government have also announced the signing of a Canada housing infrastructure fund agreement.
We will invest close to $1 billion, which Quebec can use in accordance with its policies and local needs to upgrade and develop critical infrastructure, including the drinking water, waste water and storm water infrastructure essential to new housing developments.
These measures and investments and Bill C-227 will provide young people with more housing opportunities. In my riding of Les Pays-d'en-Haut, the average price of a single-family home is $540,000. The average price of a condo is $385,000. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment ranges from $1,200 to $1,500 a month.
Most young people in my riding work in recreation and tourism, whether in restaurants, hotels, shops or ski resorts. They tell me that it is extremely difficult to afford housing on the wages they earn. Many young people are leaving Les Pays-d'en-Haut for other regions where housing is less expensive. That is unacceptable.
Bill C-227 allows us to take another step in the right direction. I can say that we are here for young people. I hope that my colleagues across the aisle will prioritize the demands of our young people and vote in favour of this bill. On behalf of my children and all young people across the country, I thank the member for Sackville—Bedford—Preston for his work on this issue.