Ryan Williams

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I think it is high time that we started not just using the word “crisis” when it comes to talking about our housing. As Elvis said, we need “a little less conversation, a little more action”. We need to declare housing a crisis. We need to swing hammers and get homes built in this country.

In my home riding of Bay of Quinte, housing is in an existential crisis that needs action. The lack of homes has resulted in sky-high costs for both housing and rental units. Only a massive increase of supply will fix the situation. We need to double new builds of homes in Canada right now, utilizing the private sector with government-assisted, affordable housing, utilizing existing housing inventory from the government, at 15%, and utilizing full collaboration among all levels of government. In Canada, it is the top issue right now, with a housing bubble that has absolutely been exacerbated by COVID-19 and the amount of cheap cash that entered this country's economy.

What does the housing crisis mean for Canadians? It means more poverty, further out-of-reach affordable housing and a further out-of-reach ability for first-time homebuyers to afford a home in this country. It has also resulted in increased homelessness. My riding has double the homelessness rate in the last two years that it did in the four years prior. Mortgage payments now eat 45% of an average homeowner's income, which is already being eroded by massive inflation. Speaking of the inflationary tax, rental in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax is up over 16% while paycheques are down over 3% because of inflation.

When we talk about a crisis, we talk about citizens who are having trouble deciding whether to pay for rent, groceries, mortgages or medication, or having to take several jobs in order to afford a down payment for a first home.

Take the case of Erica from my riding. Erica and her family have lived in the same home for six years over the time of the Liberal government. Now they are being forced to leave. Their landlord sold their home and the new owners want to renovate and flip the property for a profit. She wrote to me that they were paying $1,000 a month plus all utilities and are now being served an N11 and made to move by January 31. Both she and her husband work full-time, but cannot find affordable housing. The cheapest housing they could find was $2,000 a month plus utilities.

What is the cause of this housing crisis? It is supply. Building supply is going to be the solution alongside some other key government programs, but supply is the key ingredient. Take the Golden Horseshoe in Ontario as an example. In five years, again with the Liberal government from 2016-2021, the region added 780,000 new residents but only 270,000 new homes.

How much supply do we need in Canada? If we compare ourselves with other G7 nations, we are dead last in supply per capita. In fact, to meet the median of our friends in the G7, Italy, France, the U.K., Germany, Japan and the United States, we would need 1.8 million homes today, according to a study from Scotiabank on affordable housing.

The government would like to say that it is making a dent in supply. The hon. Minister of Immigration stated in the House that the Liberal government has created, in six years, 100,000 units. I have done the math, and members can believe that I am correct. For the government building supply to meet the median household demand today in Canada, not including the increased immigration we need and that is coming as COVID ends, it would take 108 years. This is why I am using the word “crisis” to describe housing. What has been happening is not working to quell our housing prices and rental prices. It is creating more poverty and it is creating unaffordability. In this country, we have the land. What we do not have is supply. The reason for that is an ample amount of red tape, Nimbyism and lack of coordination of programs to ensure that we take this crisis as seriously as we can.

To be clear, the government has never taken concerns seriously enough. According to home builders' associations, including home builders in my own Bay of Quinte, the government is just not engaging stakeholders in the trenches. Home builders who are more than capable of building homes are under-respected and under-represented at all levels of government. Here is the reality: The process of taking a parcel of land from concept to reality has become far too complex, expensive and slow. For a small subdivision, this is approaching 10 years.

The financial risks and amounts are so significant that they are becoming available only to large corporations that have little to no interest in small regions of Canada. If they do it is too little, too late for a local response to meet housing needs. The layers of approval agencies and utility corporations without accountability are so great that even if we build the housing we need, it fits into the Liberal plan of decades into the future. We need all levels of government to treat this as an issue to solve with the federal government leading the way.

We need to utilize the creative entrepreneurial skills of Canadians to solve the problems. We have some great ideas from the Conservative Party that can be implemented right away. One from our platform during the unneeded election involved freeing up the private sector to work alongside the government to build one million homes in three years. Another is this motion, which frees up 15% of real estate or 37,000 federal real estate buildings for affordable housing. It is absolutely incredible. It stops the time we need to start construction and utilizes supply that is there right now.

Implementing an immediate freeze of foreign home builders for two years is absolutely essential. We have heard support for that across the aisle. Yes, we have also heard universal support for not taxing primary residences.

The Conservative plan is an appropriate federal government response to this situation. I am suggesting that we also call this a national crisis. We must recognize that in this crisis there are broader solutions that will require collaboration among all parties and across all levels of government. There are solutions that the federal government can help take a leadership position on, including cutting red tape to increase building starts and building housing units through city urban core intensification.

One example includes having housing approvals take no more than 120 days. I mentioned earlier in the House that the average time to approve building an apartment building in Toronto is 10 years. We need to make sure we are starting to build and that we build now.

We need a staging and development policy in each municipality that ensures there are always shovel-ready lots in a five-year slot. If they are not fillable, they should have the tools to insert more buildable lots. There should be no reason for every municipality to not have builds occurring in every season to meet the needs of supply for this crisis.

We need to complete a housing needs assessment by the end of 2022 that works with, and develops newly recommended changes to, existing provincial legislation and municipal official plans. Too often we are seeing development come to councils with the public unaware of where housing is going or what kind of housing is needed to fix this crisis. This results in Nimbyism, or BANANA people: “build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone”. It is terrible. We need a 25-year outlook on housing needs with clear communication to all who live there to convert Nimbyism into Yimbyism. There are examples around the planet where governments are working with developers, who are working with residents on creating more housing in their own backyards. They are saying yes.

We need to work with the provinces, immigration and our local education institutions to attract and train the skilled tradespeople necessary to work in our housing industry and build new housing starts. We are missing tremendous numbers of skilled trades that pay incredible salaries in this country, and we need to make sure that we again start saying that skilled trades are great. People should get into the trades.

We need to increase the necessary infrastructure that supports increased housing units in all sectors. This includes intensification developments, transit systems, water, sewer and treatment plants and green energy developments. It includes building walkable cities and neighbourhoods, and looking at regional urban growth to name a few things.

We need to build a mix of housing units that represent our regional and local needs and demands, and we need to build up the downtowns in rural areas. We need intensification.

Something that has worked for affordable housing in Toronto and Vancouver is inclusionary zoning, but we need to ensure that there are enough carrots versus sticks to ensure we have the right types of housing incentives that will attract developers to invest in the area. Affordable housing is defined as housing that costs 30% of income or 80% of market rent. Going back to our Conservative motion, when we take the existing inventory we can do that. To my NDP friends, that is possible. That is a reason to vote for this motion.

There are measures that fit into all levels of government. The role I see the federal government having in a crisis is a leadership role in looking at emergency measures to build supply. The role I see Parliament taking is a leadership role to vote for good motions that produce housing and take a little bit of a bite out of this crisis. For rental and stand-alone housing for our citizens, and for newcomers to our country, as the second-largest country in the world we should not be in a housing crisis.

The measures undertaken to try to beat COVID-19 saw a cash influx into the economy instead of efforts focused on building supply. One hundred thousand units in six years is not enough. It is disgraceful. For the money, the $29 billion touted as a success, alongside more than $400 billion, has been fuel on the fire of this housing crisis. We are in a situation that will not leave many Canadians untouched by this crisis.

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for a very spirited debate. It is just great that we are talking about housing as a whole.

Now, I am not sure about Quebec, but in Toronto right now, to start and finish an apartment building is taking about 10 years. That is 10 years with the planning processes, and we are not even talking about the amount of time it takes to talk about it in the House.

My question to the member is this: Does it not make sense in this motion that we would be taking the federal buildings that are available now, today, that are up, and talking about their various uses and making them into housing? Does that make sense?

[Afghanistan Refugees, December 8th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, Omar, a 37-year-old Afghan, was contracted by coalition forces and deployed in his home country for three years as an interpreter, working with Canada through often deadly and dangerous missions. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Omar feared for his life and family. He fled alone, leaving his family behind to find refuge. He walked for seven days to Iran, became shipwrecked on his way to Greece and landed in refugee camps across eastern Europe.

Corporal Justin Bronzan, who is a former infantryman with the Royal Canadian Regiment and a Bay of Quinte citizen, took Omar in and reunited his family in Canada in mid-October. It was because of Corporal Bronzan and his family that Omar and his family found refuge in Canada to avoid the terror that is the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Please join me in congratulating them.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 2nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I am not going to repeat what I have already said on cash, its infusion and what the costs are, but this morning there was an article that said Ottawa has yet to account for $600 billion of its spending from last year, and now the government wants to spend more of it.

We know why these prices have gone up. We know why everything is exacerbated. We need to get those numbers and we need to get them right away in order to fix everything else.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 2nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I agree with part of what my hon. colleague said. We have massive social problems. We have problems with rent and housing. However, the solution is not more money. That is what is causing the biggest problem right now, which is inflation. People cannot afford anything.

The answer is supply. We need to be supplying more homes and, yes, we need to look at working across party lines to ensure that how we create housing is not just a federal government issue. It is going to mean working with our provinces, including Quebec, and with our municipalities to ensure that we allow our builders to build homes.

The member also mentioned mental health, addictions and poverty. Right now they are all caused and exacerbated by rising costs, which are caused by—

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 2nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, to the hon. member for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, I even learned how to play boot hockey, which apparently is something they play there. I love Thunder Bay; it is great. However, I love it in July more than in January.

We are absolutely for more immigration. In our platform during the campaign, we talked about skilled immigration and ensuring we have the labour needed to help our companies grow. Our country will not grow if our companies are not growing and if we are not providing jobs to Canadians and those who are entering this country to ensure we are growing it.

We talk about GDP for this nation. Fifty per cent of our GDP is from natural resources, so we need to make sure we have employees who allow those industries to thrive. As I said, for rural innovation, we need workers to grow companies. It is as simple as that. Growing companies creates more wealth, it contributes to our GDP and it will help solve the inflation crisis we have.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 2nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to stand today to represent the people of the Bay of Quinte. I am extremely proud to have been elected the first Conservative member for my riding. I want to thank all the volunteers who worked hard putting their time into the election, especially my campaign manager Susan Smith. We know how much work it is, especially to manage me.

As many members of the House know, it is also a family affair. My mother Heather was one of the greatest volunteers. She is an Atlantic Canadian. She was born in Fredericton and grew up in Prince Edward Island. It is no surprise that door knocking is just easy for Maritimers. My kids were all involved as well. Jack is eight, Patrick is seven and Zooey is four. My biggest thanks go to my wife Allyson. Most of us know that the biggest sacrifice in this job is our families and especially our partners. I am not sure if this was meant to scare us, but our first training in this work was a work-life balance seminar, where I was told that 75% of MPs end up getting divorced. That is a big number. I moved right next to my father-in-law in Ottawa, which he has said is a blessing and a curse, so time will tell. It is a big sacrifice to have us away from our families. My biggest thanks and love go to my wife Allyson, who is home with my children right now sacrificing her time for us so that we can make this region and country a better place.

My wife and her family are from Thunder Bay, or T-Bay as they affectionately call it. Thunder Bay residents are extremely strong people. I went there once in the winter and can say that they are so tough because it is so cold in January. My wife lives by the motto “always choose love”. In 2015, we lost our son Teddy at birth to a congenital heart defect. Every year there are thousands of Canadians who experience the terror of infant loss or miscarriage. Allyson was instrumental in our region for being a voice to women who experience loss. She wrote a blog called alwayschooselove.net and she continues to be a tireless advocate for women. She is a light for so many, and I love her dearly.

I would also be amiss to not talk about my grandfather and father, who were both political candidates provincially, in 1975 and 2003 respectively, for the provincial Conservative Party and who did not get to represent their constituents. This proves that the third time is the charm. My grandmother Audrey said that she was happy to be alive to see a Williams elected to the House. Both have immensely contributed to our region. My grandfather Don Williams was an entrepreneur. He operated Stirling Motors from 1956 for 20 years and then successfully started Williams Hotels, which he still runs today. He raised awareness for organ donation in Canada, having received one of the first heart transplants in the first decade, in 1991. As well, he supported Camp Quin-Mo-Lac and many local charities. He would always tell people to sign their donor cards. My grandfather taught me tenacity.

My father John Williams became the mayor of Quinte West for eight years and then was the honorary colonel of CFB 8 Wing in Trenton. My father passed away in 2020, but would have loved to have been here. He lived by the motto “get 'er done”. My father, alongside long-time Liberal MPP Hugh O'Neil, created the Afghanistan memorial in Bain Park in Quinte West, having attended every repatriation ceremony during the Afghanistan war, and was instrumental in the creation of the Highway of Heroes on Highway 401 to commemorate those men and women of our military.

As an MP, I look forward to the challenge of representing my constituents in this House and feel very privileged to be here in this place.

Never before have we had the challenges we face in this country. We all know that we live in the best country on the planet. Our standard of living, history, culture and freedoms are among the most revered in the world. However, we have some persistent problems facing Canadians right now. Inflation is the highest in 20 years. I have had calls from seniors this week who cannot decide whether to pay for groceries or rent. We consistently hear that employment is back to pre-COVID levels, yet we have heard of well over a million job vacancies in this country. I can say we have 2,500 skilled jobs we cannot fill in the Bay of Quinte today. We have had restaurants shut down for up to two weeks.

Housing is a disaster right now, with prices doubling in the past year. Prince Edward County, in my region, had one of the highest jumps in housing costs in the last year, at 170%, with the average price last month at $1.2 million. How could anyone who is 25 or 30 years old afford a house at $1.2 million?

What are the solutions? I am a Conservative because I believe that Conservatives believe in the dignity of us as Canadians to be individuals, and that as Canadian individuals we have the right to be free, live free and pursue that which motivates us the most, not because man or government says it is the right thing to do, but because it is our God-given natural right. I also believe that to fix our inflation on housing and other things caused by the overprinting of our money, we need to be producing more of the things money buys. That means homes. It means freeing up home builders to build the things that Canadians need. It means unleashing Canadian innovation and making things in Canada.

I come from rural Canada. If we are to fix the persistent problems facing Canadians and build the next decade into a time when Canada can lead the world, then we need to focus on urban and rural Canada producing more of the things that money buys. To fix our inflation nation, we need to become an innovation nation to produce more wealth. That means allowing individuals to pursue what motivates them and ensuring that the government assists individuals to make, grow, dream and do things in Canada so that individuals making things in a free and enterprise-motivated economy will create wealth and jobs, reversing inflation and ensuring Canada does not see any more decline.

This is not just in urban Canada, where there are 94 cities with over 100,000 people, but in rural Canada, where there are over 3,700 municipalities. The key to Canada's growth is not just in urban Canada, but in rural Canada. An innovation nation includes all 3,700 municipalities, its regions and its more than 600 first nations, Métis and Inuit reserves.

In 2018, I was part of Canada's first Canadian Rural Innovation Summit in Belleville, at which we hosted the thinkers, dreamers and doers to talk about empowering Canada's rural regions, accelerating businesses and growing our Canadian innovation share. We have an alarming rural out-migration number. Eighty per cent of our youth in rural areas end up leaving the rural areas to go to urban centres because that is where the jobs are. I lost many of my friends growing up, as they left for bigger city centres. We need youth in our regions and in our rural regions. Some say youth are the voice of tomorrow. I believe that youth in this country are the voice of today. How can we truly listen to our children if they continue to leave the place we call home? How can they stay in the place we want them to call home when they cannot afford the home?

We need a great rebuild of what will make Canada thrive: its rural regions. These are regions like the Bay of Quinte that have so much potential. It is potential I know how to unlock and potential we saw in 2018 when we hosted Canada's first Canadian Rural Innovation Summit. We need to start demanding the best from Canada and that specifically means the best from rural Canada.

Right now we are not seeing entrepreneurs create the greatest wealth they can in Canada across all regions, rural and urban. We need to strengthen the innovation in this country and protect Canadian ideas and enterprise. Our intellectual property, the measure of intellectual ideas that translate into wealth in this country, is massively underperforming that of other nations. In 2019, prior to COVID-19, Canada produced $39 billion in IP. That is not bad, but compare that with the Americans, who produced $6.6 trillion of IP, or 169 times that of Canada, when they only have 10 times the population.

We are not protecting the stuff that creates the stuff that creates wealth and kills inflation: homes; technology; our natural resources, including our softwood lumber industry; and new world-leading clean energy, including our clean, ethical oil and natural gas and advanced manufacturing. Ontario made a great announcement this morning that a new modular nuclear power unit is being developed in the province. It is going to create a large amount of GDP for the province and Canada. Innovation means improving what we are doing in the world and here in Canada, and we can do so much more.

Members cannot see it but I am wearing red socks. I wear red socks because red represents the colour of our flag and the sacrifice that has been made by our soldiers to ensure that this is a free, democratic country, and because I believe that just like yesterday when the House came together on Bill C-4, the House can and will come together more often in Canada. Our people depend on it.

God bless Canada. Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

[Softwood Lumber Dispute with the United States, December 1st, 2021]

Madam Chair, I agree with the hon. member across the way that we have to work together, because the government has just failed to make this negotiation. We had so much time in the last six years to make this happen. President Biden said in his presidential run that he did not want the U.S. to continue the Trump tariffs on their allies.

The U.S. Lumber Coalition last June said that it had not seen Canada come to the table. It said that it wanted to make a deal, but that Canada was not bringing it a deal.

We have had all the time. The biggest thing we have in the negotiation is that we have the wood and the U.S. does not. It does not have enough domestic supply to supply its own nation. We have the negotiation tactics.

Will the government go back with some harder negotiations to make the deal done for our Canadian softwood industry?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 1st, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I congratulate you on your appointment. It is great to see you in the chair.

Congratulations to the member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith. It is fantastic to hear her comments about working together.

My question relates to housing, which is a big problem in the Bay of Quinte and, of course, the whole country. It is a problem in every single one of our municipalities and every single one of our regions.

On the topic of working together, would the member agree with our plan and working with the Conservatives? The message is that it is a problem of supply right now; it is the biggest problem. We cannot have more cheap cash. We need to make sure that we are working with municipalities, provinces and across all of our regions to ensure that we have more supply built as fast as possible in order to fix this problem once and for all.

[The Economy, November 30th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, while many children across Canada look forward to Santa visiting in less than a month, many parents have already woken up to their stockings filled with coal, not houses. Parents reflecting on the gifts of massive cash for housing have not just seen rising heating bills and small business workers have not just had worker shortages, but they can see that it is “just inflation” also making housing the second most expensive in the world because there is no supply.

Will the Liberals fix the inflation tax on housing by producing supply, rather than inflation-causing cash, or will they be the grinch that steals Christmas?