Adam Vaughan

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, September 24th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, when a member asks a bad question, they get a really bad answer. I have learned that in the House.

The question that was asked by the member for Vancouver East actually missed the mark. It was 26.8% of the funds sent to provinces and communities across the country that landed in B.C. We will have the corrected record for the member very shortly.

In terms of the reaching home program, which the member opposite complained about, I would remind him that he is part of a party that only spent $50 million per year on that program. This year alone, the government is spending $489 million. We have added six new communities to the designated community stream. That is a tenfold increase in direct supports to front-line homelessness services.

The party opposite, the NDP, wanted us to send that money to the provinces and have the provinces send it to the front lines. We delivered it straight to the front lines.

In terms of the new $1-billion announcement we made this week on direct 100% capital supports to acquire new supportive housing units, I would remind the hon. member opposite that former prime minister Stephen Harper said that housing was a provincial responsibility and told me as a reporter that I should stop asking questions, that it was not a federal issue, that I did not know what I was doing and that I should read the Constitution. He was wrong.

The member opposite raises the issue of supports for supportive housing and in particular that of harm reduction. Why has his party fought harm reduction every single chance it has had on the floor of the House of Commons? Why is his party missing in action on the opioid crisis?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, September 24th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I would like first to thank the hon. member for raising the opioid issue. He has been tirelessly advocating for stronger federal, provincial, municipal and all action on that front. I join him in that, as we have lost too many people. As for his daughter's volunteer work, I thank him as well. It is not easy to get young people to volunteer in such a socially conscious way and during the pandemic put themselves and their families at risk. That service is also to be acknowledged.

I do, however, take issue with some of the member's statistics and some of his analysis of the throne speech. The member says it is all words and no action.

I would like to ask him whether the billion dollars announced this week, ahead of the throne speech, and invested straight into municipalities to acquire and secure housing for the most vulnerable, as well as the government's commitment to end chronic homelessness right across the country, do not address and include veterans?

I would like the member to address the fact that the investments we have committed to in this throne speech for youth employment services are employment dollars committed to and invested in all students and young people, not just those going to college but all vulnerable youth across the country. Will he be supporting that?

Finally, I address the child care issue. I was a reporter here when we were six weeks away from a national child care strategy being locked in for 10 solid years. There were provincial commitments right across the country from coast to coast coast, and your party chose to defeat that government. Six weeks ahead of those dollars being locked in, we lost 10 years of a national child care policy.

Will that party, this time, support a child care policy or will it gamble another Conservative government into existence?

[Housing, March 10th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, let me be crystal clear. The $2.2 billion reaching home program has a specific indigenous-led homelessness component to it that specifically addresses the needs, goals and aspirations of indigenous housing providers fighting homelessness right across the country.

Additionally, we have put $55 billion into housing. Those housing dollars are available to all indigenous housing providers across this country on an equal terms basis.

That is a foreshadowing to the important work we have to do to set up a fourth, distinct and deliberately intentional funding formula that builds on the $225 million we have already invested, without the help of the New Democrats, who never promised a penny of this in their platform and have never asked for a penny of this in any of their budget submissions. We have put those dollars into play, which are building properties right now. I was in Vernon, B.C., where I opened an indigenous elders' seniors residence. I have worked in Sturgeon Falls, where we have produced new housing. I have been here in Ottawa with the Inuit community. We have also delivered new housing as a direct result of the investments to the national housing strategy.

There is no hypocrisy here. There was action, an investment and a commitment to work for even better results in this Parliament.

[Housing, March 10th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we all agree. I am very proud to have helped move the motions at committee to start the process of driving forward an urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy to make sure that people that are governed outside the Indian Act, close to 87% in my province but 80% across the country who live outside of the national indigenous organizations governance structures, have their housing needs met. They need to be met now. They needed to have been met years ago.

I am proud to be part of a government that not only passed the national housing strategy, which incorporates the move towards self-directed, self-designed and self-delivered indigenous housing programs in this area but also has started to make profound investments in that very same space.

Our 2016 budget included $564.7 million in new funding over the next three years to address pressing needs in 464 first nations communities. We have also, as part of the 10-year housing strategy and part of the reaching home strategy, for the first time carved out an indigenous stream, which is indigenous-led, indigenous-designed and indigenous-delivered in communities right across this country.

We did something else which is profoundly important. In areas where homelessness is high and the point-in-time counts show a strong indigenous population unfortunately is being over-represented, we have started to convert even the designated communities to indigenous leadership so that indigenous housing providers can provide support for those communities right across the country from coast to coast to coast.

In Vancouver, in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, the community entity that manages the funds for that part of the country and the community advisory board is now being led by indigenous leadership and indigenous housing providers precisely because we recognize their expertise but also their cultural capacity to deliver better services for people that are homeless.

As I said, the government committed in mandate letters to the Minister of Northern Affairs, to the minister that I work for, and also to the minister of indigenous infrastructure to deliver an indigenous-led urban, rural and northen housing strategy. Those dollars will be building upon investments that we have made already as part of the national housing strategy. In fact, $225 million over the last three years has been invested specifically here.

We did one other thing that I am also very proud of and that is we made sure that CMHC stops its practice which it has been conducting over the previous decades of disqualifying indigenous applications as they came forward by saying that the applicant has to go to INAC, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, to get money. All applications, indigenous and non-indigenous, that come forward to serve indigenous communities are now incorporated into the national housing strategy under all of the $55-billion program. We are having real success with that.

We also negotiated accords with the provinces and territories across this country a responsibility for those provincial accords to address indigenous housing in off-reserve areas, including supports to sustain the existing program and existing rental supports that are needed to make and sustain affordable communities for indigenous people. We also made sure that capital dollars were allocated in that area.

The member is correct. This is an area that is going to require this Parliament to act with great deliberation and to make substantial investments.

It is unfortunate that the NDP platform does not mention indigenous housing in urban spaces at all. It also is unfortunate that the three different letters that have been posted by the leader never once mention indigenous housing, not specifically and not intentionally.

I am glad that the member opposite has raised this issue and has driven this issue forward to make sure that her party takes this issue seriously. I look forward to her support at committee and her support of the federal budget and support of the findings that our government will produce to show the way forward.

We can solve this crisis. If we do not solve the crisis of urban, rural and northern homelessness, if we do not have a self-directed fourth pillar in the indigenous housing programs of this country, we will never solve homelessness and we will never achieve reconciliation and we will never achieve the dreams of decolonization that the member talked about.

Our government is committed to achieving this. I am committed to achieving this. I look forward to working with members opposite to make sure the dollars flow, the housing is built and people are cared for.

[Poverty, February 28th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I am very proud to announce that since 2015, our government has lifted more than a million Canadians out of poverty with investments we have made across the country. In fact, in New Brunswick alone, more than half of the children who were living in poverty when we took office have been lifted out of poverty and two-thirds of the seniors have been lifted out of poverty as well.

The results of the Canadian Income Survey are crystal clear: The investments we are making from coast to coast to coast are having a tremendous impact on alleviating poverty. We have more work to do, particularly in racialized and indigenous communities. We will get that work done. We hope the rest of Parliament works with us to achieve these great results.

[Murray Drudge, February 21st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, every morning thousands of kids across Canada jump into swimming pools with dreams of Olympic glory. The drive to make a personal best, to perfect a turn or a start or to ultimately reach the podium is the product of incredible individual will and might, but it is never done alone. Each morning, these athletes dive into the water to train. There are coaches across Canada literally on deck, walking alongside these young athletes as they drive forward. Great coaches do not just create champions; they help create leaders. They build strong futures for these kids and help them grow as they compete.

This week, Swimming Canada lost one of its best coaches, and the families whose kids swim for the North York Aquatic Club lost a friend and a mentor, someone who helped propel a generation of Canadians toward Olympic glory and well beyond. Murray Drudge's sudden passing has broken hearts and shocked the swim community, but the dreams he has given shape to, the dreams of Olympic gold and the scholarship opportunities that live on through the young athletes he trained are his legacy.

These dreams are Murray's legacy. They are his personal best.

[Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act, February 21st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest as the member opposite talked about trying to extend border-crossing hours in his riding. It is something I think any riding that has a border-crossing boundary is interested in.

The previous Harper government cut border investments by $390 million. I was wondering if the member opposite could reflect upon whether a budget cut of $390 million would extend hours, or not only curtail hours but also curtail security at the border, and whether cutting money from the budget for border crossing is a way to realize his goal or whether his goal would require an investment.

[Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act, February 21st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I will address the comments made by the member opposite that seemed to focus more on a piece of legislation that is not in front of us yet, rather than on the one that is.

On the issue of border security, in the last term of Parliament the Conservatives introduced a motion that I think was called the “oops motion”. It meant that if individuals stuffed a car full of handguns, got to the border and failed to declare them, they could say, “Oops, I forgot” and be let off the hook and allowed to drive on with or without the proper licensing. The goal here was to advise border security agencies that if somebody came across the border with a gun and failed to declare it, it would not be a crime to fail to declare it. A person could simply say, “Oops, I forgot” and be on his or her merry way.

Is that the standard the member opposite wants us to achieve with border security as it relates to the smuggling of guns, the act of bringing weapons into this country? If it is, how is that going to make anybody in this country safer, other than people who smuggle guns?

[Airbnb in Spadina—Fort York, February 5th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, the riding that I represent is geographically small enough that when shootings happen, the sirens are literally heard in every corner of Spadina—Fort York. Last Friday, when gunfire broke out on the 32nd floor of a CityPlace condominium, all of downtown was rattled, rattled but not surprised.

Too many guns are going off in Toronto, too many people are dying and too many people are terrified in the aftermath. Residents are demanding stronger gun control, investments to create more resilient communities and supports to help young people make better choices.

I support these goals and I will fight for them in this Parliament, but condo residents are asking for something else. Too many of these shootings are tied to short-term rentals. People in my riding are demanding that Airbnb and other sharing platforms obey city bylaws. Rules are in place to clamp down on multiple listings and units being rented out for parties.

The city has moved to protect those of us who live in condominiums. It is time for Airbnb to obey the law and drop their lawsuit.

[Points of Order, February 4th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I apologize for whatever I did during question period to anger the opposite side.