Juno News - Pierre Poilievre and Justin Trudeau face off over housing

00:00:00.000 The question was that he promised in 2015, and I quote,

00:00:03.480 we will make it easier for Canadians to find an affordable place to call home.

00:00:06.560 When he made that promise, the average monthly payment for a mortgage in Canada was a modest $1,400.

00:00:15.500 What is it today?

00:00:16.980 The Honourable Prime Minister.

00:00:20.220 Of course, situations vary across the country, but we have stepped up with housing programs in big cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal,

00:00:28.500 but we have also stepped up in smaller municipalities and rural areas across the country that need supports in housing.

00:00:34.920 Unlike the previous Conservative government that did not feel the federal government had any role to play in housing,

00:00:40.640 we stepped up in tangible, concrete ways to deliver more housing, to deliver rapid housing,

00:00:47.440 to deliver programs that fought homelessness, programs that increase the rental stocks.

00:00:53.420 We will continue to be investing to support people alongside our partners in the provinces and municipalities.

00:00:59.340 Leader of the Opposition.

00:01:01.540 He wants to compare with the Conservative record.

00:01:03.920 I gave him a chance.

00:01:05.220 I told him when the Conservatives left office, the average monthly payment on a new house was $1,400.

00:01:12.940 I asked him to tell us what it is today.

00:01:15.360 Either he doesn't know or he's too afraid to admit, but it's gone up to over $3,100.

00:01:21.700 That's over a 100% increase.

00:01:26.560 When the Prime Minister took office, a two-bedroom apartment in Canada's 10 biggest cities, on average, was $1,100.

00:01:32.920 How much is it today?

00:01:34.880 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:01:38.140 Mr. Speaker, over the past eight years, we've seen significant growth in the economy.

00:01:42.760 We've seen more Canadians getting jobs than ever before.

00:01:46.020 We've seen more Canadians lifted out of poverty than ever before because of the things we did.

00:01:51.880 From the very first initiative, which was lowering taxes for the middle class and raising them on the wealthiest 1%,

00:01:58.120 initiatives that Conservatives voted against,

00:02:00.580 to delivering a Canada child benefit that puts more money in the pockets of families that need it,

00:02:05.660 and stops sending child benefit checks to millionaires.

00:02:08.640 We've continued to move forward in supporting communities, supporting homebuilders, supporting homeowners and homebuyers.

00:02:15.780 We will continue to be there for Canadians.

00:02:18.000 The Liberal Leader of the Opposition.

00:02:20.840 Mr. Speaker, he would have you believe that Canadians have never had it so good.

00:02:26.820 Well, ask the 9 in 10 young people who believe they will never own a home.

00:02:31.000 The 35-year-olds living in their parents' basements because they can't afford the new doubling of the average down payment,

00:02:38.860 mortgage payment or rental costs.

00:02:41.620 And speaking of paychecks, when he took office, the average paycheck,

00:02:46.160 you only needed 39% of the average paycheck to make monthly payments on the average house.

00:02:50.940 That number has risen to 62%.

00:02:53.820 By every objective measurement, things are more expensive and Canadians are taking home less.

00:02:59.100 How did he spend so much to achieve so little?

00:03:02.020 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:03:05.980 Mr. Speaker, across the country, we've seen record job growth.

00:03:09.640 We've seen record number of Canadians lifted out of poverty.

00:03:12.740 We've seen investments to fight climate change that have put more money in people's pockets.

00:03:17.260 We've continued to move forward in growing the economy.

00:03:20.380 But it is only, Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader trying to say Canadians have never had it so good

00:03:25.000 because we know Canadians are struggling.

00:03:27.240 And that's why we continue to step up with investments in dental care,

00:03:31.780 investments in low-income rental supports,

00:03:34.380 two initiatives that the Conservatives voted against.

00:03:37.240 We will continue to be there to deliver for Canadians while we deliver a better future for everyone.

00:03:42.780 Leader of the Opposition.

00:03:44.660 He's trying to talk about everything but the housing questions I asked.

00:03:49.000 And it's easy to understand why.

00:03:51.400 When he took office, housing was affordable.

00:03:53.100 Now it's impossibly expensive.

00:03:55.400 In fact, it's much more expensive than around the rest of the world.

00:03:58.420 Vancouver is now the third most overpriced housing market.

00:04:02.100 And Toronto, the tenth worst in the world.

00:04:05.220 Worse than Manhattan, than Singapore, than London, than countless other places with more people, more money, and less land.

00:04:13.320 In fact, the average house price last year in the United States was almost half less than it is here in Canada.

00:04:22.480 Why is housing so much more expensive here than elsewhere in the world?

00:04:25.460 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:04:29.260 Mr. Speaker, we have continually invested in programs and supports for Canadians

00:04:34.360 that have seen millions of families entering new homes, getting the supports they needed,

00:04:39.380 millions of refurbishments, millions of supports right across the country.

00:04:44.140 But it's interesting to contrast the Conservative record on that.

00:04:47.200 In the last election campaign, the Conservative platform promise on housing

00:04:50.860 was to give tax breaks to wealthy landlords.

00:04:53.680 That was their approach on housing.

00:04:56.100 What we contrasted with significant investments in delivering for first-time homebuyers,

00:05:02.000 delivering for people facing homelessness, delivering for Canadian families to access better housing.

00:05:08.300 The Honourable Leader of the Opposition.

00:05:09.860 Why it is that mortgage payments have doubled under his eight years?

00:05:13.080 Why rent payments have doubled under his eight years?

00:05:15.440 Why Canadian house prices are about 72% more expensive than their American counterparts,

00:05:21.920 even though they have 10 times the population on even less land?

00:05:24.800 He couldn't answer any of these questions.

00:05:26.400 The answer, according to Scotiabank, is Canada has the lowest number of housing units

00:05:31.160 per 1,000 residents of any G7 country.

00:05:34.060 The number of housing units per 1,000 Canadians has been falling since 2016,

00:05:40.700 right when the Prime Minister took office.

00:05:42.680 Why is the Prime Minister continually giving billions of dollars to municipal government gatekeepers

00:05:48.720 to block construction for Canadian homes?

00:05:51.100 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:05:54.560 Mr. Speaker, this goes to the heart of the disagreement on housing between the Leader of the Opposition and I.

00:06:00.360 I recognized, and this government recognized, that we need to work with municipalities to help them change zoning laws,

00:06:08.740 to help them accelerate their permitting processes,

00:06:12.580 to create more opportunities to build affordable homes for Canadians across the country,

00:06:17.960 whereas he sits back and attacks them and proposes absolutely nothing.

00:06:22.100 We're stepping up with $4 billion to accelerate the supply of homes across this country.

00:06:27.320 We will continue to be investing and working with partners,

00:06:30.740 instead of picking fights with everyone and hoping that it all settles itself.

00:06:34.980 The Leader of the Opposition.

00:06:36.340 No, actually, the disagreement is that under our government, housing was affordable,

00:06:40.900 and under this government, it's eye-poppingly expensive.

00:06:43.420 That's the disagreement.

00:06:46.180 And let's just look at the facts.

00:06:48.400 Canada has the fewest houses per capita of any country in the G7,

00:06:53.160 even though we have the most land to build on.

00:06:55.760 Why? We rank 64th in the OECD in the time it takes to get a building permit.

00:07:01.120 Government red tape adds as much as $650,000 to each house in some cities.

00:07:07.940 And the Prime Minister has made it worse by giving the gatekeepers who blocked the building more money.

00:07:12.760 Why?

00:07:13.180 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:07:16.300 Mr. Speaker, this goes to the heart of the announcement we made last week on the Housing Accelerator Fund,

00:07:22.460 which does work directly with municipalities to accelerate the delivery and the construction of affordable housing.

00:07:30.960 Now, Mr. Speaker, what the member opposite would have you believe is that doing nothing to address the housing crisis

00:07:38.460 would have somehow made it better.

00:07:40.360 He criticizes us for the investments of billions of dollars in housing over the past years.

00:07:45.320 Just think, if things are expensive now, how much worse it would have been

00:07:48.860 had we had a Conservative government that continued to cross its arms

00:07:53.080 and cut services to Canadians for the past eight years?

00:07:56.720 The Honourable Leader of the Opposition.

00:08:00.760 You don't have to imagine what prices would have been were I making the decisions,

00:08:06.140 because when I was the Housing Minister,

00:08:07.860 the average mortgage payment and the average rent payment were half of what they are now.

00:08:16.900 You don't have to imagine it's called history.

00:08:19.620 Now, his solution is to continue to send billions of dollars.

00:08:23.800 He spent $89 billion on housing affordability to double mortgage payments,

00:08:30.380 double rental costs, double the needed down payment.

00:08:33.220 How did he spend so much to achieve so little?

00:08:35.920 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:08:41.360 Next thing, the member opposite is going to complain that housing prices are higher today

00:08:46.240 than they were in my father's time as Prime Minister.

00:08:49.140 Mr. Speaker, we are going to continue to invest in Canadians

00:08:53.940 and recognize that while we grow the economy, while we...

00:08:57.420 I'm going to have to interrupt the Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:09:01.400 I'm having a hard time hearing the answer, and I'm sure other people are.

00:09:05.920 The Right Honourable Prime Minister, you've got about 20 seconds left.

00:09:11.020 Mr. Speaker, every step of the way, we've contributed to a growing economy,

00:09:14.900 to lifting Canadians out of poverty,

00:09:16.620 to putting more money in the pockets of the middle class

00:09:18.800 and people working hard to join it.

00:09:20.700 And that's why we're continuing to invest in building houses,

00:09:24.760 in working with municipalities, in working with the provinces

00:09:27.380 on fighting homelessness, creating affordable homes,

00:09:30.600 and creating more opportunities for all Canadians.

00:09:32.960 You know, when you look at his promise to make it easier for Canadians to get a home,

00:09:41.440 and since that time, the payments have actually doubled.

00:09:44.680 You listen to him rattle off the billions he's spent to achieve that failure.

00:09:48.960 He kind of reminds you of that shady contractor

00:09:50.980 who promises you that he'll build you a brand new home,

00:09:54.520 but the cost just keeps going up and up and up,

00:09:57.640 and the house never actually gets built, Mr. Speaker.

00:10:00.720 And that is exactly where young people are today,

00:10:03.140 stuck in their parents' basements,

00:10:04.940 their dreams crushed because they can't get themselves a home and start a family.

00:10:09.280 Instead of siding with the gatekeeper

00:10:11.140 and sending billions of dollars more money to those bureaucracies,

00:10:14.980 why won't he get them out of the way to bring homes Canadians can afford? 0.99

00:10:19.500 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:10:23.200 Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader is actually arguing

00:10:26.620 that less investments in Canadians,

00:10:29.480 less investments alongside municipalities and provinces,

00:10:34.900 fewer programs to support Canadians

00:10:38.900 would somehow have solved this problem.

00:10:41.200 That's the problem with Conservatives.

00:10:42.600 They think that cuts can create growth.

00:10:45.700 They think that fewer investments in Canadians

00:10:48.040 will get people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and succeed.

00:10:52.160 Mr. Speaker, we believe in investing in the middle class

00:10:54.880 and people working hard to join it,

00:10:56.440 and that's why Canadians are doing better than they were before.

00:11:00.780 The Honourable Leader of the Opposition.

00:11:03.520 In other words, we should forgive him for failing

00:11:06.080 because he fails expensively.

00:11:08.020 Mr. Speaker, what we propose is actually to incentivize home building.

00:11:15.800 Why doesn't the government link the number of federal infrastructure dollars

00:11:20.340 a big city gets to the number of houses that actually get completed?

00:11:24.120 That would incentivize them to get the gatekeepers out of the way. 0.77

00:11:27.080 We could bring in penalties for big city bureaucrats 0.89

00:11:30.560 that block construction and boost infrastructure dollars

00:11:33.780 for those that get out of the way.

00:11:35.620 Why won't he pay for results instead of paying for failure?

00:11:40.880 Mr. Speaker, Canadians well remember

00:11:46.380 that when the Honourable Member was in government,

00:11:49.560 the characterization of the relationships between provinces,

00:11:52.820 municipalities, and the federal government

00:11:54.200 were fights all the time.

00:11:56.240 Conflicts and fights with cities,

00:11:58.260 conflicts and fights with rural mayors,

00:12:00.720 conflicts and fights with provinces

00:12:02.840 and cuts to services that Canadians relied on.

00:12:07.020 He is demonstrating that eight years of investments in Canadians,

00:12:11.060 in growth, in lifting Canadians out of poverty,

00:12:13.380 in creating jobs, in fighting climate change

00:12:16.980 just makes him want to go back to the good old days of Stephen Harper

00:12:20.780 with cuts and fights with everyone.

00:12:22.820 The Honourable Leader of the Opposition.

00:12:25.540 Mr. Speaker, he says that Canadians shouldn't worry about the fact

00:12:29.940 that our young people are living in homeless shelters

00:12:32.300 while they go to school

00:12:33.340 or that they're condemned to tent cities

00:12:35.300 or their parents' basements

00:12:36.900 because all the politicians are getting along.

00:12:40.360 And that's what's important.

00:12:41.320 As long as we go along to get along

00:12:42.820 and have wonderful meetings and conversations,

00:12:44.780 he believes we shouldn't worry about the poverty

00:12:47.020 that the gatekeeping policies are causing.

00:12:49.720 Why won't the Prime Minister link federal infrastructure dollars

00:12:53.120 for cities to the number of houses they allow to be built?

00:12:56.620 Find those gatekeepers of block

00:12:58.820 and bonus those that build

00:13:00.440 so that we can have more affordable homes for our young people.

00:13:04.180 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:13:07.980 The Member Officer wants to talk about poverty.

00:13:10.780 Let's talk about poverty.

00:13:12.020 The very first thing he did after we became government

00:13:15.620 was vote against a tax hike on the wealthiest

00:13:19.480 so we could lower them for the middle class. 0.86

00:13:21.940 He then voted against a Canada Child Benefit

00:13:24.480 that has lifted hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty.

00:13:28.220 We created millions of jobs

00:13:30.060 while lifting millions of Canadians out of poverty, Mr. Speaker.

00:13:34.340 Our focus on growing the middle class

00:13:36.700 and supporting people working hard to join it

00:13:38.600 has delivered and is continuing to deliver

00:13:41.560 even as we stand with people going through difficult times right now.

00:13:44.560 You cannot grow this economy through cuts.

00:13:46.680 No matter much, he shouts that he...

00:13:48.480 We do our work independently

00:13:52.800 in a non-partisan fashion

00:13:54.980 and unlike the opposition parties.

00:13:57.880 Well, the Prime Minister has failed to make housing affordable

00:14:00.880 even after 89 billion precious tax dollars

00:14:04.800 have been spent on that failure.

00:14:07.080 I've suggested to him we should link the number of dollars

00:14:09.320 a big city gets to the number of houses they allow to be built

00:14:12.860 to incentivize more building.

00:14:14.680 He doesn't like that idea.

00:14:15.600 Well, he doesn't like results, but here's another idea.

00:14:19.420 We build transit stations with federal money.

00:14:22.280 In the most successful transit and housing jurisdictions on earth,

00:14:25.160 there are apartments next to those stations.

00:14:27.140 Will the Prime Minister require every federally funded transit station

00:14:30.460 have high-density apartments

00:14:31.820 so that our seniors and young people

00:14:33.480 can live right next to the bus or train?

00:14:36.100 Honourable Prime Minister.

00:14:39.100 Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate

00:14:41.300 the leader of the Opposition

00:14:42.400 for actually talking about concrete ideas.

00:14:44.740 For a long time, his only recommendation to help Canadians

00:14:47.660 was invest in Bitcoin.

00:14:49.700 That will help you avoid inflation.

00:14:51.720 But now he's talking about credible opportunities to help Canadians.

00:14:57.100 What's nice, though, Mr. Speaker,

00:14:58.520 is the idea of density around transit hubs

00:15:01.400 is something that we're already moving forward on

00:15:03.720 and have invested in over the past few years.

00:15:06.460 We know how important is that.

00:15:07.900 But I will remind the member opposite

00:15:10.420 that in order to invest in density around transit hubs,

00:15:13.320 one has to invest in public transit,

00:15:15.120 which his government never did,

00:15:16.860 which we have continued to do to record levels.

00:15:19.820 From the Opposition.

00:15:22.820 The difference is, like housing,

00:15:25.040 we actually got it built.

00:15:27.000 And what I'm proposing is not to dream about housing around transit,

00:15:32.420 but to actually require every single federally funded transit station

00:15:38.220 be pre-approved for high-density housing

00:15:41.280 so our young people and our seniors

00:15:43.360 can live right next to the bus and train.

00:15:45.700 He doesn't like that idea.

00:15:47.260 Well, how about this one?

00:15:48.240 He's got 37,000, many of them largely empty buildings,

00:15:52.660 big, ugly buildings.

00:15:53.860 Why doesn't he sell off 15% of them

00:15:55.800 so we can convert those into affordable housing

00:15:58.320 for our young people?

00:15:59.860 The right honourable Prime Minister.

00:16:02.800 Speaker, part of a question period, an answer period,

00:16:06.580 needs to be taking yes for an answer.

00:16:08.480 And I said yes.

00:16:09.380 Not only do we like the idea of density around public transit spaces,

00:16:12.720 we've been doing it for years.

00:16:14.140 We've been putting it in our agreements with municipalities

00:16:17.040 as we invest historic amounts in public transit.

00:16:20.800 Now, the government, the former Conservative government,

00:16:23.600 refuse to invest in any infrastructure larger than a doorknob

00:16:27.080 or an economic action plan sign.

00:16:29.560 We're continuing to invest in significant public transit,

00:16:33.760 including with a permanent public transit fund,

00:16:36.820 something that the Conservatives have again campaigned against.

00:16:39.980 We will continue to be there to invest in Canadians.

00:16:42.600 The Honourable Leader of the Opposition.

00:16:51.540 Their very first infrastructure project was to install a doorknob

00:16:58.280 in the Prime Minister's office when they took office, Mr. Speaker.

00:17:01.340 Mr. Speaker, speaking of housing...

00:17:04.820 I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker.

00:17:11.980 Sometimes I even crack myself up here.

00:17:15.160 Mr. Speaker, he is presiding over a 37,000-building empire,

00:17:20.360 these big, ugly, and largely empty buildings.

00:17:23.120 Why doesn't he sell off 15% of 6,000 buildings

00:17:26.940 so that we can convert those buildings into affordable housing

00:17:30.340 for our young people

00:17:31.360 so that they can actually have a roof over their head

00:17:33.240 and a place to call home?

00:17:34.360 Mr. Speaker, once again, this is an idea

00:17:41.620 that we're already moving forward

00:17:43.000 with looking at federal properties

00:17:44.560 and how we can convert them

00:17:45.900 either through the rapid housing process

00:17:47.960 or by working with municipalities

00:17:49.780 to deliver more affordable housing.

00:17:52.220 But I'm very pleased to see the Member office

00:17:54.400 moving off his recommendations on buying Bitcoin

00:17:57.180 as a way of avoiding inflation

00:17:59.120 and actually putting forward concrete ideas.

00:18:01.700 It's great to have a real debate over ideas.

00:18:03.600 I just hope he'd...

00:18:04.720 I wish he'd paid attention to the ideas we have

00:18:06.960 so he can maybe propose different ones

00:18:09.540 or perhaps better ones.

00:18:11.420 The Honourable Leader of the Opposition.

00:18:14.180 Mr. Speaker, the only ideas he's put forward on housing

00:18:16.440 is to double the rent, double the mortgage costs,

00:18:18.720 double down payments,

00:18:19.880 and this is on the backs of hard-working Canadians

00:18:22.500 who are paying more tax than ever.

00:18:24.300 On April 1st, he wants to raise the cost of housing even more

00:18:27.740 by increasing the cost of home heating,

00:18:30.020 a monthly expense that goes with owning a home.

00:18:33.600 This at a time when seniors are already choosing,

00:18:36.640 making the heartbreaking decision between eating and heating.

00:18:40.280 He wants to triple, triple, triple the carbon tax.

00:18:43.280 Will he cancel his plan to raise taxes on our seeders,

00:18:46.900 seniors, on our workers, on our farmers,

00:18:49.960 and get his hands out of their pockets?

00:18:51.340 Mr. Speaker, as of April, the places across the country

00:18:59.340 that have the carbon backstop in place will receive more money.

00:19:04.500 We are delivering more money than the price on pollution costs

00:19:08.120 to average families across this country

00:19:10.100 because we know that people both want to see us

00:19:12.820 fighting climate change and preparing for the economy

00:19:16.240 and challenges of the future

00:19:17.460 while making things more affordable to Canadians.

00:19:20.680 That's why our Climate Action Incentive

00:19:22.820 puts more money back in the pockets of people in his riding,

00:19:26.340 people right across the country in backstop areas.

00:19:29.660 We will continue to fight climate change

00:19:31.360 and support affordability for Canadians.

00:19:33.620 Hear, hear.

00:19:34.380 Will a member for Burnaby...

Juno News - March 22, 2023

Pierre Poilievre and Justin Trudeau face off over housing

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