Mike Morrice

[Crisis in Sudan, April 25th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, Waterloo region is home to over 700 Sudanese people and their families, with many more with connections in Sudan right now. People like Suha Osman, a Wilfrid Laurier alum, and 18 family members of hers are in Sennar right now fleeing air strikes. At a time when six diplomats were evacuated on Sunday, while Suha and her family are still in Sudan with no way out, it is hard not to have the sense that some lives seem more important than others.

Can the member for Whitby share more about what we all can do to ensure that every Canadian, all 1,700 who are in Sudan right now, gets to safety as soon as possible?

[Crisis in Sudan, April 25th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, my thanks to your office for granting this emergency debate and to the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan for his role in making sure that this happened.

I would like to follow up on the question with respect to the short-term implications. Estimates from Global Affairs Canada are that there are about 1,600 Canadians in Sudan right now. Can the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan share more about what he has been doing? In my view, we should be working across party lines at times like these to find solutions together. What have he and the Conservative Party been doing to work with the governing party to find constructive solutions to get Canadians out?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, as I am sure the member for Vancouver Granville knows, a commitment to net-zero by 2050 is not worth the paper it is printed on if we do not stop subsidizing the companies most responsible for the crisis we are in.

He mentioned affordability and mentioned supporting the most vulnerable Canadians across the country. As he knows, 40% of people living in poverty are living with disabilities. In this budget, once again the Canada disability benefit was not funded.

I would like to hear what he is going to do to put more pressure on the governing party to move much more quickly on moving forward the Canada disability benefit.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, respectfully, I would put forward that what we have been waiting for as environmentalists is to stop subsidizing fossil fuels. I respect what this member has done before being elected and while elected to work toward that. However, there are still four new subsidies in the midst of a climate crisis, totalling over $3.3 billion in this budget.

What is he going to do to put pressure to put an end to that?

[Persons with Disabilities, April 24th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary correctly pointed out that the disability community will be involved in the design of the disability benefit because they called for it. Throughout the process of Bill C-22, they made clear the importance of that, so I brought forward an amendment that would require the government to meaningfully engage the disability community in the regulation.

What remains true today is that if the government really was serious, it would not wait for this whole process of regulations and everything else. Just like child care the government would have started by funding it and then moving forward with the rest. Why not do the same here?

[Persons with Disabilities, April 24th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, time and again, and we will probably hear it from the parliamentary secretary again tonight, we hear from the governing party that it is keen to move ahead with the Canada disability benefit. However, once again, in budget 2023, the only money allocated was to continue designing the benefit. There is nothing for the benefit itself, leaving people with disabilities living in legislated poverty.

This is why in question period a few weeks ago, I reminded my colleagues in the governing party what it looks like when the federal government is serious about a new program. I gave the example of child care. First came the funding, then agreements with provinces and territories, and then the legislation.

I shared how it is the exact opposite of how it has transpired with the Canada disability benefit and how disappointed I was, and still am, that it again was not funded in budget 2023, despite billions more being set aside to subsidize the oil and gas industry, or even to put a car on the moon. I asked why we should trust that the government is serious about the Canada disability benefit in light of this.

So many of my constituents ask me this same question, and I would like to share just one example of a constituent I recently spoke with, Barb. The Canada disability benefit would change their life. Barb and I spoke in my community office just last Friday. I was told they wanted to discuss their advocacy for expanding medical assistance in dying to include mental health.

We ended up talking for almost an hour, and what I learned over the course of our conversation is that, first, Barb lives in legislated poverty, accessing the Ontario disability support program, or ODSP for short. I learned that because of this, Barb has been unsheltered before and now is precariously housed. I also learned that Barb is keen for more mental health supports, and like me, is deeply disappointed the federal government has not funded the promised $4.5-billion Canada mental health transfer. It is only in light of all of this that they are now advocating to be eligible for medical assistance in dying.

I will tell the House what I told Barb last Friday afternoon, which is that I do not support medical assistance in dying for mental health, in part because I believe the federal government must do far more to support people who need it most, people just like them. It pains me to know there are so many people like Barb in my community and right across the country, people with disabilities who have been organizing and calling out for years for better.

The federal government must listen to them, and it could start by funding the Canada disability benefit today. Failing this, it could at least introduce a disability emergency response benefit similar to what was done in the pandemic as a stopgap measure.

My question to the parliamentary secretary is two-fold. First, if the federal government is continuing to delay bringing in the Canada disability benefit, will it at least bring in a disability emergency response benefit to be sure people such as Barb have the support they need in the meantime? If not, what will the federal government do to show that it really is serious about the Canada disability benefit?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 24th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I would like to follow up on the question from our hon. colleague from Longueuil—Saint-Hubert. It is no surprise that housing is barely mentioned in Bill C-47. It was barely mentioned in the budget also. In fact, it was the opposite. The federal housing advocate said, “The newly unveiled Federal Budget is a sorry disappointment. It completely misses the mark on addressing the most pressing housing crisis this country has ever seen.”

In this bill, the federal government could have gotten serious about, for example, addressing the loophole for real estate investment trusts. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has now estimated we could direct $285 million over the next five years to build the affordable housing we need if we were simply to eliminate the tax breaks for REITs.

Can the member for Winnipeg North speak about whether he is going to put pressure on the government to bring about this change?

[Correctional Service of Canada, April 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, Ashley Smith died in segregation in 2007 at the Grand Valley Institution for Women. Then, in 2016, Terry Baker died at Grand Valley while also in segregation. An inquest into her death was called in 2017, but it has been delayed twice; this time, it was because Correctional Service Canada would not provide the necessary documents. It did not even give a reason.

Will the minister direct Correctional Services to stop stalling this important inquest?

[Housing, April 19th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I would agree that there are other parties here that are not doing enough on housing, but that was not the question I asked. I asked how the parliamentary secretary can stand by a budget that does not invest in the housing we need.

He spoke about the rapid housing initiative. That is one of the issues I am calling on to be renewed. The City of Kitchener was calling for it to be renewed too, and it was not in this budget. The calls of organizations across the country are clear. We cannot spend time patting ourselves on the back for investments from past years in the midst of a housing crisis.

I would invite the parliamentary secretary, as I have said to others, to come by my community and meet the people who are living unsheltered and calling for so much better. Will he come and visit?

[Housing, April 19th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, last Saturday night, I was with over 800 people at the Working Centre's annual mayors' dinner. It is an incredible organization in my community that has been on the front lines of responding to poverty, unemployment, the housing crisis and more.

It was at that event that we got to hear of the lived experiences of people living unsheltered. One estimate that we now have is that about double the number of people in the room that night are living unsheltered across Waterloo region.

This is a crisis that we are in the midst of. In Waterloo region, we have plenty of people with great ideas and passion. People are, for example, coming together to buy properties to keep them permanently affordable, such as Union Co-operative is doing. Organizations such as the Working Centre, the House of Friendship, Beyond Housing and so many more are pouring their hearts and lives into building the affordable housing that we need.

In light of this, I need the parliamentary secretary to know that the federal government cannot take a year off when it comes to addressing the housing crisis. Communities like mine, while full of people who are ready to step up, cannot be expected to do it on their own. We need all three levels of government acting like this is the crisis that it is.

Months ago, Canada's federal housing advocate, a position that was created by the federal government own legislation, was clear. She said that the national housing strategy is failing. After this budget, she said, “The newly unveiled Federal Budget is a sorry disappointment. It completely misses the mark on addressing the most pressing housing crisis this country has ever seen.”

Why did she say that? It is because on housing, there was nothing in it, outside of a needed investment in indigenous housing, which is unfortunately back-loaded, and the funding does not start for a few years still.

My concern is that the federal government might be out of ideas on housing while we are in the midst of a crisis that needs urgent action. For the rest of my time, I want to offer more of those ideas for the parliamentary secretary to continue to put pressure on the implementation.

First, we need to get more affordable non-market housing built. One simple idea is to make the rapid housing initiative a permanent annual funding envelope for housing providers, in my community and others across the country, to apply for, predictably, to build the housing they are keen to build.

Second, we need to increase investments in co-op housing to get more built, just the way we did back in the eighties at the rate and the pace that we did then. We cannot pat ourselves on the back for an investment in co-op housing from last year and pretend that this is enough.

Third, we need to end the loophole for real estate investment trusts to ensure that they pay their taxes at the same rate as others and direct that funding to build more of the non-market housing that we need. Fourth, we need to follow through on Habitat for Humanity's call to waive GST for all affordable housing built by charities across the country.

My question to the parliamentary secretary is this: Will they push for these kinds of initiatives to address the housing crisis we are in?