Adam Vaughan

[Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act, November 3rd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, it is an interesting speech that, unfortunately, is not supported by any facts.

What we know about casinos and the trouble they are having right now, is that they are losing a demographic because they have effectively bankrupted it. Then they prey on the next demographic coming down the road. In this case, casinos are now looking for single-event sports betting as a way of supplementing their income because they are losing on all other fronts. This has been shown time and again.

What I take issue with is this notion that it is going to expand the economy. It is kind of like the NDP tax hike for wealthy Canadians that is going to pay for everything seven times over because it is actually using the same tax hike to pay for everything seven times over. The list of what would benefit from this, from hospitals to schools to addicted gamblers to major league sports franchises to amateur sport, is continuous.

The trouble is that casinos take four dollars out of the local economy for every dollar that goes into it. Why would you want to bankrupt small business right now with a new casino offering?

[Business of Supply, November 3rd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, first of all, the member should know that Tony, Tim and Will are in our hearts and minds as we pull through this pandemic together as Canadians. I hope they see good days ahead as we work together to make sure those good days arrive. I thank the member for telling their stories.

I will put aside the party opposite's concerns that we are spending too much money. The member for Carleton often says we should stop spending money. I am not sure how to do that and help small business simultaneously. However, I will ask a very particular question.

I have a run a restaurant and had to meet a paycheque running a restaurant. I understand entirely the complexities of the leases that restaurant owners have and the debt structure that many restaurant owners have in terms of putting their private assets up against the business in order to get the financing they need to open. Leases are an area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction. The laws that govern commercial leases are entirely within provincial jurisdiction. The time it took to get provinces on side to help small business was substantial, including the province that the member opposite comes from.

If we were to intervene unilaterally in a private contract between two individuals under provincial jurisdiction, does the member opposite think the courts would for a minute defend our actions against landlords who decided they did not want to participate? Does he think we could have overridden the courts, overridden provincial jurisdiction and intervened in private contracts unilaterally, with no consequence?

[Business of Supply, November 3rd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I was a city councillor in 2008 when the real estate industry triggered a collapse of not just the North American economy but in fact the global economy, which created a recession. I was also a city councillor when I watched the federal government propose a budget that did absolutely nothing to protect thousands of jobs and the production of new housing in the country. It was only when the opposition parties threatened to bring down the government that the former Harper government decided to act.

Would the member care to contrast the substantial delay, the proroguing of Parliament and the inadequate response from the Harper government to that recession, that economic crisis, which at the time was the deepest and darkest recession the country had faced since the Great Depression?

The Harper government refused to act, was bent into action by the opposition and then acted with measures almost too small to make a difference to save the jobs and the construction industry. We lost thousands of houses and thousands of jobs in that 2008 slow response.

[Citizenship Act, November 2nd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, putting aside the controversy that the Conservatives tried to manufacture around changing the citizenship oath in the last term, which held things up, my question for the member of the Bloc is very simple.

The member identified the systemic way in which indigenous people have been discriminated against in Canada, which, of course, includes Quebec, yet at the same time the member is part of a party that refuses to acknowledge that there is systemic discrimination and systemic racism at play in Quebec.

How can indigenous people across the country claim that there is systemic discrimination and systemic racism in the way in which they are treated, and yet somehow be exempt from that analysis when in the province of Quebec? Surely they must be subjected to exactly the same sort of racism in that province as they are right across the country. They especially are when you talk to them about it, but some in the Bloc Québécois say that it does not exist in Quebec.

[Housing, October 30th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I was very proud to work with Mayor Iveson on delivering these critical dollars, and with Susan McGee from Homeward Trust, one of the most effective programs across this country in combatting chronic homelessness.

This funding is divided into two streams. Both streams are accessible to Edmonton, but Edmonton was given block funding to deal with the immediate crisis of homelessness through the COVID crisis. It can also apply to the other stream. I will remind members that this is the first installment of many installments to come on this file.

I would be happy to work with the member opposite to find out what properties are available for acquisition and deployment toward any chronic homelessness. I am very proud of the $1 billion we have put on the table.

[Housing, October 30th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, this government through the national housing strategy has actually restored lapsed funding agreements with co-ops to sustain the rent geared to income program that the Conservative government was letting disappear under its watch.

Regarding the co-op in question, I would be happy to sit with the member to review what CMHC has done around re-establishing those subsidies, but in response to COVID, this government is now taking the unprecedented step of launching the rapid housing initiative, a $1-billion initiative to acquire, renovate and provide emergency housing immediately for cities across this country. We look forward to continuing to work with Parliament to achieve on this file.

[Bills of Exchange Act, October 30th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I have often said one of the great honours of being a parliamentarian is to hear speeches like that in this House. While we have to do it virtually during COVID, I want to thank the member opposite for reminding us of the shameful and troubling history that we inherit in this country, but the important and critical work we have to do going forward.

I listened to what can only be described as a story that is as powerfully painful as it is joyful in terms of where it is leading us as a country and in the transformation in one family's life. I ask the member opposite, as we move toward recognizing this day, what she would see as important ways to mark the day, what children should do, what government members should do, what educators should do, what all the parts of Canadian society should do to make sure that this day of reconciliation is not a day of reconciliation, but in fact the celebration of the achievements of reconciliation that I hope we see in the days ahead.

[Housing, October 29th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this chamber again and talk about housing and cities. This week, our government took the historic step in choosing to work with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and directly fund cities as we work together to end homelessness in Canada.

Our government knows that not everyone can safely practise social distancing because of shelter conditions or overcrowded homes. We know that when people who are already struggling with illnesses are left to sleep rough or pitch a tent in a park, this precarious situation turns deadly very quickly during COVID-19. This is why $1 billion is there to help cities directly, to fund non-profits and indigenous housing providers in rural, urban and northern communities immediately and help them acquire new housing. This funding, combined with close to $500 million in Reaching Home funds this year for front-line homeless services, is so critical right now.

I talked to someone living in a tent encampment in my riding who told me that homelessness is not like COVID. They do not need a treatment, they need the cure. This rapid housing initiative is a bold move to do just that. We need to end chronic homelessness now.

[Housing, October 27th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, again, the member opposite is just plain wrong.

If she wants me to stop patting myself on the back, perhaps I could quote somebody who she will listen to. This tweet was received today:

The announcement day was very welcome and will get out to good use. Thank you for your continued work on housing. Please also champion new powers for cities to help address priorities independently.

That came from a young man who is a city councillor in Toronto. His last name is Layton, Mike Layton, the son of Jack Layton. If the NDP are not prepared to listen to Jack Layton's son, I will search the country for somebody else. If they want me to go mayor by mayor, or premier by premier, or to go to individuals who are homeless in this country, tent by tent, I will tell them what we are doing. I will open my eyes and ears to those conversations.

I will make sure that we do not rest until we end chronic homelessness in this country, because that is the pledge we made in the throne speech. I can only pray that the NDP wakes up in time to support it.

[Housing, October 27th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, my colleague has correctly identified the list of the challenges the national housing strategy is addressing. What she has failed to do is understand how it is being addressed. For example, on the issue of doing nothing for renters, there is a $4-billion program that is cost-shared with the provinces to provide the new Canada housing benefit. It is active in Ontario. We are concerned that some provinces, B.C., for example, have not rolled it out, but there are now rent supplements to support people and prevent homelessness.

In respect to the numbers the member quotes about the housing completions, she is just wrong. I do not know where she is getting her numbers from. I know she asked a very narrow question to the Parliamentary Budget Office, but what she failed to understand is that the national housing strategy also delivers housing with provinces through housing accords, which are now signed with all provinces and territories across the country.

In fact, when we take a look at the achievements of the national housing strategy, what we see is that those units are being built. What I think she is referring to are the completed units as opposed to the ones under construction. While I can see there have been some challenges with COVID, again, her numbers are wrong.

Today's announcement adds another 3,000 units of housing to the housing portfolios of municipalities and, in particular, non-profits across the country. Those 3,000 units are the first installment, which comes prior to a budget announcement that is going to add the second, third and fourth installments. We are committed to ending chronic homelessness.

When the member says that nothing is being done on the urban, rural and northern housing initiative, she is again only partially right. She is describing the problem but not talking about the solution. In fact, there has been a $225-million increase to urban indigenous housing programs across this country since we took office.

We also have increased eligibility, so every single indigenous housing provider has access to the co-investment fund and to the community housing fund. The repairs, construction, acquisition, delivery and subsidizing are being done through a $55-billion national housing strategy, which as I said, was increased today by $1 billion to create 3,000 units of housing immediately to help cities deal with the COVID dynamic.

In terms of the challenges, the hon. member keeps talking about a housing program that was cancelled 30 years ago. I have a 20-year-old daughter who was born, went to school and graduated since then. If the member opposite would like to build a time machine and go back in time, she would see me on the front lines protesting the cuts that were made in the early nineties. They were a huge problem. In fact, Paul Martin told me himself that it was the single biggest mistake he ever made in politics.

I do not defend those cuts. Those cuts were wrong, but what I did do, unlike members of the NDP, is join a party that actually was committed to investing in housing, delivering new housing, repairing existing housing, subsidizing existing housing, saving the lapsed co-op agreements, stepping up on the issue of urban, rural and indigenous housing, as well as stepping up on reserves, the provinces and the cities, and directing dollars to the front lines through the reaching home program.

To give an example of how different the NDP approach was to ours, that member ran in 2015 on a campaign to promise $60 million total over four years to end homelessness. We doubled the reaching home program to $102 million in our first year. We have now locked it in for 10 years. This year, because of COVID, we increased the funding to the reaching home program. The total we will be spending on front-line services directly in cities just like Vancouver East is close to $500 million in one year. That is 10 times more than that party has ever promised for reaching home, so if the member opposite would like to build a time machine and go back in time, she is perfectly suited to do that. She will see a much younger version of me, as I said, protesting those cuts.

The difference between the member's party members and ours is that while they are building time machines we are building housing in every single province. We are repairing housing in every single province. We are subsidizing residences in every single province. We have a housing accord with every single province and territory, and now we are moving to comprehensively address the deficit in urban, rural and northern housing because, as she said, it is shameful. I will also add that I have never seen a campaign plank in their platform that ever spoke to that issue.