Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Winnipeg North.
I rise today to speak at second reading to Bill C-56, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act; also known as the affordable housing and groceries act. I believe this is an important and very much needed piece of legislation. Before I get into the specific measures contained in this bill, I would like to speak to the global economic situation that makes some of the measures contained in this bill necessary.
The world is experiencing a global inflation crisis. Canada is not an island, and we are not immune to the factors that are driving high prices around the world. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, from supply chain challenges to climate change impacting harvests and causing crop failures, inflation is an inescapable global phenomenon. Compared to our G7 allies, Canada has fared very well. In August, Canada's inflation rate was measured at 4% according to the data published by the Financial Times. This is just behind Japan and almost tied with the United States and compares to 6.7% in the United Kingdom, 6.1% in Germany and 5.4% in Italy.
COVID-19 was an unforeseen and unimagined global crisis. The world essentially ground to a halt. Canada has fared relatively well through the pandemic recovery, thanks to the resiliency of the Canadian economy and in part to the programs to support Canadians and business owners to allow them to keep paying their bills when we had to stay at home and many business owners had to close their doors. Without that support, I shudder to think of where we would be now.
However, just because Canada is doing better than many of our peer countries, that does not make the impact on the day-to-day lives of regular Canadians any less real. Several factors are driving rates in Canada, including energy prices and food prices. I have had many meetings on the issue of affordability. I have heard this loud and clear from my constituents in Scarborough Centre. It was a consistent theme whether I met them at local events or on their doorsteps or in my constituency office: People are hurting and people are worried. More and more Canadians are having difficulty making ends meet. They are having to stretch every paycheque further and further.
Access to affordable, suitable housing has been a problem in our community for far too long. Rents are out of control, home ownership is for many an elusive dream. Interest rates are high and it costs so much more just to cover the necessities of life like putting food on the table. Grocery bills have skyrocketed.
The Grace Place Church operates one of several food banks in my community, and Pastor Amos tells me that demand has increased from 14,000 visits per month during the pandemic to 20,000 per month today. This is not sustainable. I have taken these messages to the government and I am pleased to say that, with Bill C-56, the government is listening. No one measure or measures will be the silver bullet, but the steps outlined in this legislation would have a meaningful impact.
Let me speak first to housing, which is an issue I have raised several times in this House. We need to be clear and unequivocal: There is a housing crisis in this country. We need to build more housing of all kinds. We need to build houses and rental units. We need more affordable housing of all types. We need to build senior homes and long-term care and student housing. We need more supply, and it needs to be affordable as well as accessible. We need more smart density housing, especially around the transit hubs.
There are many reasons for the housing crisis, and one thing must be clear: We cannot solve it alone. Every level of government has a role to play. The federal government, the provinces and the municipalities all have levers and responsibilities and all must come to the table, put politics aside and work for the good of all Canadians. As a federal government, we have limited levers, but we do have a big one: We have money. We need to come to the table with serious dollars; we expect the provinces to match the amounts or at least make major contributions.
However, if we just put money on the table we will have failed. In health care, we use federal funding to enforce national standards of care. Likewise, with housing, we need to make federal dollars contingent on specific changes needed to address the housing crisis and make housing more affordable.
We have already seen this with the government's housing accelerator fund. By making municipalities agree to loosening residential zoning restrictions to allow for more density and accelerating affordable housing projects as a condition to receive federal funding, our government would use federal dollars to help drive change at the municipal level, which would see more smart density and more affordable homes built. It is an important step to addressing housing affordability.
Clearly we need to do more, and with this bill, we would be building on the steps we have taken. I am glad we are tackling the issue of rental units, which are a critical part of our housing ecosystems. They are the choice for students who are away to study, for young people just starting their careers, for newcomers making their start in our country and for seniors looking to downsize but who still want to be independent.
The cost of rent is too high for too many now. That is why we are acting with specific measures on Bill C-56. To build more rental housing faster, we would remove the GST on new rental housing, such as apartment buildings, student housing and senior residences. This would accelerate much needed rental housing builds across Canada.
As well, we are calling on provinces to also waive the provincial sales tax on new apartments. I am so glad to see the Province of Ontario immediately agree to follow our lead, and I hope all other provinces follow suit. This would help rental housing get built faster and encourage new builds to break ground. New supply will help to increase competition and moderate prices. Already, housing experts say that this change will take many rental building projects out of the planning stage and into construction by making building rental units more attractive than before, rather than simply building more condominiums.
Tim Richter, CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, said, “It's the federal government being very serious about taking some meaningful and muscular steps to address the housing crisis.”
This is one important measure, but it is not going to solve every issue in the housing market. It is not meant to. We cannot just do one thing; we need to do all the things. We all need to come to the table, and we all need to act now.
Let me turn my attention now to the more basic issue of affordability. We have taken many actions over the years to make life more affordable, especially for the middle class and those working hard to join it. The Canada child benefit has put more money into the pockets of Canadian families that need help the most every quarter. Thanks in part to this tax-free, income-based support for low- to middle-income families with children, there were 782,000 fewer children living in poverty in 2020 compared to 2015. That is a big deal. I have heard from many families in my riding how the CCB has literally been life-changing.
Another major step we took, in co-operation with the provinces but largely funded by the federal government, has been the Canada-wide early learning and child care program. In Ontario, for most families, child care costs have already been cut in half and will soon go down to $10 a day. This is saving families thousands of dollars. We also continue to expand dental care for lower income Canadians, starting with children and seniors.
These measures have been impactful, but with inflation driving up the cost of everyday life, we need to do more. I have spoken to food bank operators in my riding. Demand spiked through the pandemic and is still high today.
That is why we are also taking action to stabilize grocery prices. High grocery prices have made it tougher for many Canadians and their families, all while grocers are increasing their profits. We are acting in both the near and medium terms.
The one-time grocery rebate delivered up to $467 to a family to help them put food on the table. Last week, the Deputy Prime Minister and the industry minister met the CEOs of the five major grocers and made it clear that we expect concrete measures on how they can stabilize food prices with a plan by Thanksgiving. We will make it easier to crack down on unfair practices that drive up prices and make it harder for local grocers to compete to protect Canadians and help them with the cost of groceries.
I look forward to the debate on this bill. I look forward to constructive suggestions on how it can be made better, and I look forward to working with all parliamentarians to make life more affordable for all Canadians.
