Adam Vaughan

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 12th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I would like to welcome the member. It is always good to see former city councillors on the floor of the House speaking to the issues that matter to municipalities. Housing was one of the issues that was referenced in the subamendment that was just tabled.

I have read the paragraph in the NDP platform on housing. As a former councillor, I was curious that it required a one-third, one-third matching funding, and that 500,000 homes were going to be built with no mention of how they would be financed. At an average cost of $360,000, that is a $180-billion program. If one-third has to come from municipalities, which is the NDP platform, where are the cities that have that $60 billion financial capacity and how those cities would come up with $60 billion? To put it in context, one-third of federal programs come to Ontario, so that means $60 billion alone for Ontario. For Toronto, that is a $30-billion program he is proposing. That would require the City of Toronto to come up with $10 billion, an extra $1 billion a year on top of the tax base in order to fulfill the NDP's pledge as mandated by its platform.

Does the member opposite think the City of Toronto has an extra billion dollars lying about? If it does, why is it not building housing now with it?

[Housing, June 18th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of the national housing strategy. As the PBO correctly identifies, the 62% increase in front-line services to fight homelessness will help us reduce chronic homelessness by 50%. As well, we are targeted on lifting 500,000 Canadians out of core housing need.

What the PBO does not count is the Canada housing benefit, an $8.4 billion program. The report also does not take into account the federal-provincial-territorial agreements that we have locked in, which guarantee a 15% increase in housing supply. It also does not properly qualify the loans and financing that are building thousands of housing units across the country.

The national housing strategy is working, building real housing for real people.

[Toronto Raptors, June 17th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, game.

There were so many memorable moments as the Raptors won the historic championship they captured last week, and the riding I represent is quite literally today the absolute guaranteed centre of the universe, as millions of Toronto sports fans and sports fans across the country are celebrating.

The city is celebrating a team that means the world to us, but it is also a team that we can see the world in, and this is critical about this beautiful team that won. The six is sweet. Our city is not only where the best come to play; it is also a city where the best come to live, love, work, learn and invest.

The last names say it all: from Lin to Gasol, from Siakam to Leonard, from Nurse to Magloire and Masai, and of course Aubrey, Bhatia and Lowry, with those two beautiful kids.

Spicy P summed it up best when he said, “No French questions?”

Toronto's team is an international team because all the world has a home in TO. It is the Canadian way. Nous sommes le Nord. We the North. We won it all.

[Poverty, June 13th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in this House and talk about the amazing progress we have made on eliminating child poverty in this country. In fact, the child benefit has reduced child poverty by 300,000 children in this country, and we have the lowest levels of poverty since we started recording it.

On the issue of the food program, we are strongly in support of making sure that children who go to school and students who study have the nutrition they need to do the work they need to do in school. Every study shows that this is a progressive policy. We stand firmly behind it, and we will meet those targets prescribed within the budget.

[Government Policies, June 7th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, a year ago Ontario voters chose to elect a Conservative government.

While the Conservative leader says that he does not think governments have a role to play in lifting people out of poverty, the Conservatives in Ontario, under Doug Ford, seem to think they do have a role to push people into poverty. In fact, let us take a look at some of the cuts that have been made. They have cut minimum wage for young people. They have cut social assistance for people with disabilities. They have cut health supports. They have cut back on funding for homelessness shelters. They even have cut supports for advanced age seniors as they need support as they age.

In fact, a Conservative in the House, just this week, stood and said, “if we want to know what God thinks of money, we look at the people he has given it to.” If we want to know what Conservatives think about poverty, look—

[Child Care, June 7th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, the focus on alleviating child poverty is one of the most important priorities this government has addressed in its first four years, and it has done it in several different ways. Of course, the Canada child benefit, which was massively increased and made tax-free, which the NDP voted against, is part of the solution.

The other part of the solution is the $7.5 billion we have invested, through the provinces, to create new day care spaces, to create new day care subsidies and to support, through the infrastructure program, the construction of new day care facilities.

This government is committed to finding the solution to the problem and working with partners to get there, including indigenous partners with the first-ever distinctions-based program.

[Seniors, June 7th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, we are very focused on making sure that Service Canada responds more quickly and more appropriately to inquiries. In fact, we have improved response times, but there is still a lot of work to be done and the recent Auditor General's report has pointed us in a good direction.

On the issue of OAS and CPP and automatic enrolment in GIS, we have taken steps to make sure that seniors are automatically enrolled through the tax system to make sure they get the benefits they are entitled to and retire with dignity. We have also invested heavily in reforms to CPP and changes to the GIS to make sure seniors get more money as they are enrolled automatically. We are committed to making sure that seniors are taken care of properly.

[Progress in Spadina—Fort York, June 7th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, as the member of Parliament for Spadina—Fort York, I am proud this term to have worked to secure funding to build a more affordable, more beautiful and more creative city to live, work and play in.

It begins with housing: $1.3 billion to repair and build new public housing, including new funding for an 80-unit facility on the waterfront in my riding. On transit, $4.9 billion for the TTC has been delivered, and that supplied a new streetcar line between Cherry Street and Dufferin in the riding, supported the King Street pilot project and extended Toronto's Bike Share program.

Our riding's natural beauty is benefiting from close to a billion dollars invested in naturalizing the Don River, delivering new parks and flood-protecting parts of my riding, most of all in downtown Toronto.

As an MP, I have also secured millions of dollars in new funding for Harbourfront Centre, OCAD University, George Brown College and so many more, including Artscape.

However, the best part of being a Spadina—Fort York MP is the progress we have made on poverty. Almost 50% fewer single moms are living in poverty in Toronto than when we were first elected. That is real change. Better is possible.

[Customs Tariff, June 6th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The member opposite is clearly using a prop. He is waving a white flag. The Conservatives are prepared to surrender and he seems to be trying to surrender again. Captain Capitulation can have the floor back.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1, June 6th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, none of us on this side of the House disagree with the assertion that climate change is an existential danger to our existence on this planet, and that is why this government is so focused on making sure that its investments in climate change adaptation and resiliency, as well as in greenhouse gas emissions, are not made just through the ministry of the environment, the ministry of transportation or the ministry of natural resources. All government departments have a role to play. I am very proud to say that the national housing strategy requires reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of new builds by 25% above the existing building code.

In fact, I was at a project in Hamilton, the refurbishment of a 10-storey, dormant, empty tower that was built in the 1960s. That building will contribute to the energy grid by reducing greenhouse gases. That is the kind of thing good, strong housing policy does. It houses people and fights climate change. It is a cornerstone of our national housing strategy.