Ryan Williams

[Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021, February 3rd, 2022]

A little too late.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, January 31st, 2022]

With regard to the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), since June 22, 2017: (a) what is the total amount of federal funding given to the CIB, broken down by year; (b) what are the details of all infrastructure investments made by the bank, including, for each project, the (i) name, (ii) location, (iii) description, (iv) date the agreement was signed, (v) total agreed expenditure by the CIB, (vi) total expenditures to date by the CIB, (vii) agreed completion date, (viii) current expected completion date; and (c) what is the yearly amount spent by the CIB on (i) salaries, (ii) bonuses, (iii) consulting fees, (iv) rent or lease payments, (v) travel, (vi) hospitality, (vii) infrastructure programs, (viii) other expenses, broken down by year?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, January 31st, 2022]

With regard to federal funding for housing construction since January 1, 2016: (a) what is the total amount of funding for the construction of housing in Canada, broken down by (i) year, (ii) program; (b) what is the total amount of housing construction announced by the government using the funds identified in (a), broken down by (i) year, (ii) province, (iii) municipality, (iv) program, (v) type of residence; and (c) what is the total actual amount of housing actually built using the funds identified in (a), broken down by (i) year, (ii) province, (iii) municipality, (iv) program, (v) type of residence?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, January 31st, 2022]

With regard to the Department of Indutry’s Innovation Superclusters Initiative, since May 24, 2017: (a) what is the total amount spent on the initiative, broken down by (i) supercluster, (ii) year; (b) what are the number of jobs created by the initiative, broken down by (i) supercluster, (ii) project invested in, (iii) province of investment, (iv) year; (c) what is the total economic output created by the initiative, broken down by (i) supercluster, (ii) project invested in, (iii) province of investment, (iv) year; and (d) what is the total number of intellectual property (IP) assets created, broken down by (i) supercluster, (ii) project invested in, (iii) type of IP asset, (iv) province of investment, (v) year?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, January 31st, 2022]

With regard to the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Program from municipalities in Ontario that have a Canadian Armed Forces installation, since March 2020: (a) has the government received any correspondence on issues with the PILT Program from municipalities in Ontario that have a Canadian Armed Forces installation, and, if so, what are the details of each correspondence, including (i) the municipality, (ii) the recipient, (iii) the date received by the government, (iv) whether the government responded to the correspondence; (b) for each government response to correspondence in (a), what are the details, including the (i) date of the response, (ii) sender, (iii) recipient, (iv) author, (v) internal tracking or file number; and (c) what are the details of all briefing notes written since March 2020 related to the PILT Program, including the (i) title, (ii) author, (iii) date, (iv) recipient, (v) summary of content, (vi) internal tracking or file number?

[The Economy, December 9th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that we still are battling through COVID, but we now have different problems than we did prior to COVID. They require an immediate response from the government to tackle housing and supply issues, and to work with all members of government across all agencies. As stated, we have people now not able to afford their homes. We have people now who are finding themselves homeless.

The action we need now to swing hammers includes working with all levels of government, ensuring that we put enough resources in and that we start doing the work needed now; not just talking about it. We need less conversation and more action, ensuring that we have those homes built so that Canadians can then find a home for an affordable price.

Can the minister confirm that the government will look at supply in order to fix this problem?

[The Economy, December 9th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, this is my first late show, and I am happy to have the opportunity to speak again on housing. At question period, I asked whether the government believed that the supply issue was serious and whether the lack of supply and supply inflation were causing the housing crisis.

I come from a region that is very much like all the other regions across Canada seeing such a dire position on housing, and this comes down to our lack of supply. Where did our numbers come from? When we compare ourselves with other G7 nations, we are dead last in supply per capita, even though we are the country with the second-largest amount of land on the planet. That means all of those countries, even the U.K., an island, have way more supply per capita than Canada does, a nation with an incredible amount of land.

When it comes to what is happening, we have all seen it and have been talking about it all day. We have people who right now, because of the lack of supply, are having trouble deciding whether they can afford rent or groceries. We have individuals who have become homeless by no choice of their own. My region has seen double the homeless population at a time when we do not need that because we have so many other problems. We also have many people who cannot find affordable housing.

When I talk to home builders in my region, those who are building homes, they say it is harder now than at any other time in their existence to build a home, and they are not finding support from the local government. We are now seeing it take up to two or three years before we even get subdivisions started in the ground. We have seen the conditions in Toronto, where from start to finish an apartment building now takes a decade. We have seen the conditions created when people want to put plans together and go into certain neighbourhoods. We get Nimbyism, or “not in my backyard”, because people are saying it is not something they desire. We are finding that it takes longer and longer in this country to build a home.

Let us look at how many homes we need. To meet the average number of houses in the rest of the G7 countries, we need, right now, 1.8 million homes. We have been hearing all week from the government about the programming that is going into building homes. However, as confirmed by the Minister of Immigration this week in the House, the government only built 100,000 homes over six years, spending $29 billion. That is not enough.

To build 1.8 million homes, we need to ensure that we are unleashing the innovation that comes from our home builders and that we are working with the provinces and municipalities to free up the red tape that is holding back our Canadian workers, our skilled trades and our municipalities from being able to put up enough homes to house not only the people we have here, but the backlog of immigrants whom we surely will have coming into this country. There is an opportunity to create jobs to make sure we have a lot of trade jobs and others that create paycheques for housing. This opportunity comes from unleashing innovation.

Will the government commit to working on creating supply, with bills that include discussions on all sides with all governments, to fix our housing crisis?

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, absolutely. Cash is being handed out, and right now we see that people cannot make their mortgage payments or pay for groceries. They are having trouble with the next month's rent, and that is because of more cash. If the government's solution is more cash, what is going to happen three months from now? I will still be unable to feed my family because groceries will have gone up another $200.

We need action. The best part about this plan for housing is this. If we can get tradespeople in to build units, we create jobs. What do jobs create? They create paycheques. That is what would fix this problem once and for all.

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I could not agree more. We have to prioritize housing and start prioritizing action on housing. This motion, and it sounds like the member should be agreeing with it, gets units that are existing or standing in government coffers into the housing supply system. We need 1.8 million homes. We should be making sure we take as much land and as many buildings as we can to convert into all kinds of housing for everyone who needs it. If we do not take action, we are going to be in a heck of a mess in little time. We are already in it.

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I am listening to a government that has the worst housing crisis this country has ever had. If we want to talk about government support, we are giving it that support tonight. We are talking about fixing that and, as with trade and the other failed promises this week, looking at made-in-Canada solutions. We want all parties to agree to go forward to fix this today. We need to swing hammers. We have to stop talking. We need less conversation and more action.