Adam Vaughan

[Housing, June 7th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the member for Vancouver East and I have run in two general elections at the same time, and I would compare our party platform side-by-side to the NDP platform with her any single day to compare the differences. Not only have we promised more, we have delivered more. Not only have we built more, we are building more. Not only are we talking about repairs, which the NDP's platforms have never done, we are also talking about making sure that all the co-ops and subsidized housing in the federal programs get restored.

Our program is real. It is building real housing for real people. If building housing was as easy as booking a trip to Disneyland and figuring out how to pay for it later, I am sure the member opposite would have some advice. The reality is we are not interested in those sort of hairy, ridiculous schemes. We are actually interested in building real housing for real people in real time. The rapid housing initiative is just the latest installment of what has been a very successful national housing strategy, almost doubling the targeted number of housing starts. We are back at it again with rapid housing 2.0.

Success is on the horizon, and we are pursuing it. Our platform will pursue it because our budgets are pursuing it and because our housing starts speak for themselves.

[Housing, June 7th, 2021]

I will just conclude by saying that we are very pleased that the NDP is now recognizing that housing affordability and affordable housing are paired as critical issues. We look forward to the NDP supporting our budget and the measures we have taken this year. We look forward to working on this file with the NDP and other interested parties, because the impact of high housing prices is a land value issue, and that land value issue is now making affordable housing harder to build in the social sector.

We need to address both issues simultaneously in order to give Canadians the choices they deserve. Our government is committed to exploring all of the options and moving on all of these files to make home ownership a possibility for all Canadians, if that is their choice.

[Housing, June 7th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Vancouver East is absolutely correct on almost all of what she just said. I did say in an interview a few weeks ago that we have found ourselves with a housing system that makes it easier for foreign investors to purchase and own property in this country than for Canadians to achieve their dream of home ownership, particularly for first-time homeowners.

That situation must change. It is why we have introduced the vacant home tax for offshore owners. It is also why we are working with the Province of British Columbia on money laundering and making sure that FINTRAC has the resources to uncover that part of the investment portfolio, which not only is illegal but is also driving up home prices for Canadians. It is why we have taken steps in the recent budget to move forward on beneficial ownership disclosure. It is a complex issue, based largely on the way the secondary mortgage market operates, but we have work to do there. I agree that work must be done.

We have also taken steps to build bridges for home ownership for first-time buyers with the first-time home buyer incentive, which has now been modelled around, for the very first time in CMHC's history, regional housing markets to support the acquisition of homes for those people choosing to own their homes.

We have also done things like portfolio funding for Habitat for Humanity to help with targeted approaches to equity-seeking groups and equity-deserving groups in the home ownership market, to make sure that others who have different barriers to home ownership also have an opportunity to make that choice, if that is the choice they want to make.

What has been disappointing is that the Conservatives, who often talk only about market housing, have opposed every single one of our reforms in market housing. While the NDP has spoken very strongly and is a strong supporter of our national housing strategy, it is good to see it now taking on the challenge of market housing—

[Alexandra Park, June 3rd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about a community in my riding locally know as “AP”. It is often called Alex Park, but its proper name is Alexandra Park.

While Alex Park’s roots run deep, its branches reach the sky. The community boasts that it sends more of its kids per capita to post-secondary school than any other public housing project in Canada. A few years back it turned itself into a co-op housing community. The co-op is named for the man who had that vision of self-determination: Sonny Atkinson.

Even during the pandemic, Alex Park is rebuilding itself, adding new homes and new hope to the neighbourhood. The community centre is at the heart of AP and during COVID, it saw its young leaders rise to the challenge. It has built a bigger kitchen, turned spare rooms into a food bank, and delivered groceries to families in need, while delivering home-cooked meals to hundreds of seniors every day, every week and every month.

I would describe it as resilient, remarkable, beautiful and bold, caring and full of characters. It is an honour to be their MP and it is an honour to share their story with Canada through Parliament.

[Housing, May 14th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the rapid housing initiative has been a remarkable success. In just over six months, we have created the $1-billion investment for close to 4,700 housing units that will house well over 5,000 people who were previously homeless or at risk.

In budget 2021, we added another $1.5 billion to the rapid housing initiative. This will hopefully make even further inroads into eliminating chronic homelessness in the country, in particular in places like Etobicoke where the member comes from.

I will also add that the previous question asked about what we did in Nunavut. There were three projects under the rapid housing initiative approved in Nunavut, all with the Nunavut Housing Corporation. We are making a difference in people's lives—

[Housing, May 14th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, let me first correct the record. Our government has made historic investments in housing, not just in Nunavut but also in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. With the rapid housing initiative, close to 40% of the projects went to indigenous-led housing providers.

The north presents some challenges. We await the tabling of the HUMA report on the urban, rural and northern housing strategy to take next steps. The minister has engaged the housing advisory council to create this new program, which will provide additional support for those people in the north looking for housing, in particular in Nunavut.

We look forward to the progress we are making and will build on the $70-billion national housing strategy, which commits to success in just this area.

[Housing, May 13th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, when we provide leadership on housing at the federal level, we have to provide leadership across the full spectrum of Canadians' housing needs. Yes, some people are looking to buy, some people are looking to rent and some people need supports to live in the housing they have acquired because of a whole series of challenges. These could be medical, or they could have to do with income challenges or with what part of the country one lives in.

Our government has focused on giving Canadians support regardless of what choice they want to make for themselves. We are focused on making sure there is a housing system that meets their needs and recognizing their human rights to access a housing system that does meet those needs. That is our government's investment.

In terms of the conversation the member had about a study being done. I recognize that the party opposite has trouble with science. I recognize that it has trouble with universities and colleges. I recognize that most of the Conservative governments in this country are gutting public education here, there and everywhere.

If she is worried about what we study as opposed to what we do, it is probably because she is worried about education. If she is worried about education, she might want to join a party that actually fights for public education and investments in the public education system—

[Housing, May 13th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, let me begin by unequivocally answering the question: No, there is no contemplation, no desire and no will to tax people's primary residence. The capital gains tax is not being touched by this government and will not be touched by this government. It is the third time the member opposite has received that answer. Maybe this is the lucky time it lands.

In terms of what our government is doing to create affordability, the zoning issue she talks about and the provincial guidelines she talks about are beyond our jurisdiction. We can talk about what we are doing to make housing more affordable for Canadians, whether they choose to rent or whether they choose to own.

Let us begin by talking about home ownership. We have put in a vacant homes tax to try to chase out of the market speculators who buy homes but do not allow people to live in them. We have put in beneficial ownership requirements and rules in place to make sure that money laundering is chased from the Canadian market and takes that speculative forced inflation out of the market.

We have provided support for first-time homebuyers. In fact, we just recently announced new measures to deal with the riding and geography the member represents in the Lower Mainland and Victoria in B.C. and in Toronto to increase the capacity of that program and to increase the threshold to make sure those two particular urban regions are addressed through the first-time homebuyers program.

We have also taken steps to make sure that we move toward providing supply through the national housing strategy, a $70-billion program, which provides a lot of new market rental housing, a lot of deeply affordable housing, including the rapid housing initiative, which recently produced close to 5,000 units of new housing. It has also done things like block financing for Habitat for Humanity and provide $58 million in funding to provide low-income home ownership opportunities for Canadians looking to purchase their first home.

What did the Conservatives do with every single one of those measures? They voted no, no, no and no, and then no one more time just for good measure. What does that do? It protects the status quo. It protects the market as it is, which is interesting because the Conservatives effectively created this market. When the member for Carleton was minister for housing and I was in opposition, we sat there and watched him brag about how unregulated the housing market was. He bragged about it. The unregulated housing market has created a speculative bonanza that is driving first-time homebuyers out of the dream of owning a home.

It is Conservative policy that got us here, and the worst policy was when Jim Flaherty double-crossed the Prime Minister, double-crossed his caucus and cancelled all the income trust. The one he did not do was the real estate income trust sector, and that has galloped into the housing market and has driven inflation so that housing is beyond the reach of most Canadians. When the Conservatives stand up here and protect the status quo, the status quo is a market that they have designed and delivered to Canadians, and that is the housing crisis we inherited as a government.

When I was a journalist covering Parliament Hill, Stephen Harper once told me that if I wanted to talk about housing in Parliament, I should read the Constitution first, because there was no federal responsibility toward housing. That is why I put down my pen and I picked up an election sign. I planted it in the front lawns of the communities I represent, including a lot of condominiums with first-time homeowners who are renting right now, and I got to work on the national housing strategy, providing federal leadership on this program for the first time in over a decade.

If the member opposite was serious about housing, and I do not really think she is, if she was serious about helping Canadians make the choices they want to make, and I really do not think she is, she would start supporting the federal housing policy proposed by the Liberal government, instead of protecting the status quo designed and delivered by the member for Carleton, by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and by former finance minister Jim Flaherty.

The member joined a party that has walked away from housing, walked away from the needs of Canadians looking for housing, whether to rent or to own, and now she is trying to pretend that there is a tax to be worried about. I will say it one more time to her, for the fourth time: This government has no plans to change the capital gains tax exemptions for primary residences—none, not one bit, not at all, never.

I do not know what CMHC has hired to do as a study. What I can say is that the government has made a very firm decision, a very clear decision. We will not be introducing a tax on someone's principal residence to change the exemptions for the capital gains tax. It is not going to happen on our government's watch—

[Housing, May 7th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, we know it is important to help Canadians who are looking to buy their first home. That is why yesterday we announced the expansion of the first-time home buyer incentive, improving the eligibility in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria, and their regions, by raising the income threshold for eligible homebuyers. With this incentive, we are supporting more young Canadians and Canadian families buy their first home. However, we will also continue to build on our historic investments in the national housing strategy.

We will ensure that Canadians have a choice; have access to a market that is safe, affordable and secure; and, most importantly, have a place to call home.

[Deanne Taylor, May 7th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, Deanne Taylor, a loving partner in life and in art to Michael Hollingsworth, and one of the Hummer Sisters, has passed away.

Playwright, actress, singer, designer, multimedia wizard, journalist and director, Deanne Taylor was one of the most important artists ever to grace our beautiful city. Celebrated as the co-creator of The Village of The Small Huts, last mounted at the Stratford Festival and perhaps her most important work, Taylor and Hollingsworth created a gloriously, wickedly funny, smart series of plays that lampooned, revealed and explored Canada's history.

She also ran for mayor as part of a trio of feminists: the Hummer Sisters. They finished second to Art Eggleton in a campaign played out as Art Vs. Art .

Deanne lived her life in a studio atop Cameron House on Queen Street West in Toronto. She dispensed sage political advice and wrote speeches for many a candidate, including the MP who is speaking right now.

The queen of Queen Street's reign has ended. Long live the queen. Bless Deanne. Bless her.