COVID-19 Protests  Mr. Speaker, the member says he does not take his marching orders from the United States. With the convoy, what we are understanding is that there is a lot of money coming from the United States. Does he agree that should be stopped? In fact, this is going to be brought up at committee as an issue from the NDP.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Mr. Speaker, one of the issues that the member raised was centred around housing affordability. The Conservatives talk a lot about housing and the inflationary costs. However, it seems to me that the housing they are talking about, in terms of supply, is not necessarily housing that can be affordable to Canadians who are in need.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Mr. Speaker, one of the issues that the member raises is inflation and that ties into the cost of housing. Along with inflation, there are many factors impacting the huge rise in the cost of housing. Part of that is the financialization of housing where people are treating housing as though it is a stock market.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member about support for seniors. He talked about not having government spending, but one of the things the NDP has been calling for, even before the election, is for the government to support seniors and not claw back their GIS. This is because seniors are getting evicted and rendered homeless at this point in time.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Madam Speaker, the measure the government introduced is minuscule, given the crisis we are faced with. A 1% tax is barely going to do it. What we are faced with is a huge financialization of housing, in which housing is being treated as though it is the stock market. Yes, we need a foreign buyers tax; actually, we need to ban foreign buyers at this point in time.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Madam Speaker, New Democrats were raising this issue even before the election, saying that seniors will be suffering because the GIS will be cut. The government did not take any action. It said it was going to do something about it in May. Well, seniors are being evicted right now, so that is not good enough.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Madam Speaker, the Liberal government and the Conservatives over the years have actually co-opted the word “affordable”. In fact, some people actually think that this is a four-letter word, because there is no longer anything affordable, and saying that rentals being made available way above market are somehow affordable is an insult.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Madam Speaker, I will pick up where I was before the technical issues. I was outlining the problems my constituents were having in their application for the benefits they need because of the pandemic. One constituent advised my office of their experience when they attempted to apply online.

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Madam Speaker, the phone lines are not clear in what prompts to follow and the number to press for the CWLB. Callers are put on hold for hours, and then when they finally get through, they are navigated to the wrong menu and have to start all over again. The phone system is not set up in the same way that it was for the CERB or the CRB where one—

Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021  Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to engage in this debate, but let me first address another issue. I am so very disgusted by the images and displays of Nazi symbols and the use of the Confederate flag and other such hate symbols by those participating in the convoy. This is absolutely despicable, especially in light of the fact that racial and systemic inequity has been exacerbated with the impacts of COVID on the Black community, the indigenous community and racialized and marginalized people.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, I would like to go back to the issue of seniors. I raised a question with the member's colleague, the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge, regarding the problems my constituents in Vancouver East are faced with. There are seniors who are facing eviction and getting the runaround from officials who are telling them to contact Service Canada to send in a form, which we all know will not help the situation.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, in my riding of Vancouver East, there are a great number of seniors who are absolutely desperate because their GIS is being cut or reduced. It is so confusing. One of my constituents has been referred by government agents to go to Service Canada to get a form to see if he could get his GIS restored, even though that process would not work for him.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, after the government abandoned people who risked their lives to help us, millions of Afghans, including children, are on the brink of starvation. We learned yesterday that Canadian organizations, like World Vision Canada, are unable to deliver food and aid to children suffering from malnutrition.

Questions Passed as Orders for Return  With regard to Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC): (a) since January 1, 2020, how many applications have been (i) received, (ii) approved, (iii) rejected, (iv) are in inventory, broken down by month, stream (e.g. Home Child Care Provider, citizenship, etc.), and whether the application was inland or outland; (b) how many applications have passed eligibility, criminality and security, but do not have a final decision since January 1, 2020, broken down by month, stream, and whether the application was inland or outland; (c) for applications in (b), what is the average time that has passed since passing the most recent of those steps, broken down by stream, and whether the application was inland or outland; (d) how many first-stage decisions on applications for the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots have been issued between January 1, 2021, and June 30, 2021; (e) broken down by year and reason for refusal (including reason for not passing eligibility), what is the number of Humanitarian and Compassionate applications that were refused since 2015; (f) for how many applications in (e) did an officer request additional information from an applicant prior to issuing a refusal; (g) broken down by stream, how many applications submitted to bilingual streams (Stream A, Stream B and International Graduates) of the temporary resident to permanent resident pathway were issued refusals for failing to submit French language test result; and (h) how many applications in (g) received a positive eligibility assessment following a reconsideration?

Questions Passed as Orders for Return  With regard to the National Housing Strategy, broken down by type of applicant (e.g. non-profit, for-profit, Indigenous organization), stream (e.g. new construction, revitalization), stage (e.g. letter of intent, finalized agreement, servicing), date of the submission, province, number of units, number of units for Indigenous households, whether or not construction has been completed, and the dollar amount (for grants and loans): (a) how many applications have been received under the National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF) since 2018; (b) for NHCF applications that resulted in finalized funding agreements, what is the (i) length of time in days between their initial submission and the finalization of their funding agreement, (ii) average and median rent of the project, (iii) percentage of units meeting the NHCF affordability criteria, (iv) average and median rent of units meeting the affordability criteria; (c) how many applications have been received under the Rental Construction Financing initiative (RCFi) since 2017; (d) of the applications in (c) that resulted in loan agreements, what is the (i) length of time in days between their initial submission and the finalization of their loan agreement, (ii) average and median rent of the project, (iii) percentage of units meeting RCFi affordability criteria, (iv) average and median rent of units meeting the affordability criteria; (e) how many applications have been received for the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) since 2020; and (f) of the applications in (e) that resulted in loan agreements, what is the (i) length of time in days between their initial submission and the finalization of their agreement, (ii) average and median rent of the project?