The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Canada’s Housing Affordability Crisis

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm

00:00:14.560 your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps, the likes Brock, and

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00:00:48.800 Canada. As always, if you can't watch it or listen to it right this second live, you can

00:00:53.600 download it later on on platforms like Google Play, Spotify, iTunes, you name it. It is

00:00:58.880 out there. Our guest today, we're back by popular demand. Brad Viss, the Member of Parliament

00:01:03.180 from Mission, Matsquee, Fraser Canyon in beautiful British Columbia, is also the Shadow Minister

00:01:07.680 for Housing. And this is a topic that is extremely top of mind for, I think, everybody these days.

00:01:12.980 Welcome, Brad.

00:01:14.420 Jamie, great to be on again.

00:01:16.140 Now, you kicked off a motion, I think it was last week, on the housing debate. Maybe you

00:01:20.300 can tell us a bit about that. Yeah, so I put forward a motion, talking about the cost of

00:01:27.900 housing, that the cost of housing continues to rise out of reach for everyday Canadians,

00:01:35.160 and that the current government has failed to provide sufficient supply of housing, despite

00:01:42.840 touting time and time again, that they're spending billions and billions and billions of dollars

00:01:48.100 to address the housing crisis in Canada, yet they have nothing to show for it. And under

00:01:54.300 their watch, affordability has gone down the chute, and young people are wondering whether

00:02:00.820 they're ever going to be able to own a home again. And that's a big problem. And that's

00:02:06.180 something we need to look closely at. And that's something that we need to put reasonable solutions

00:02:11.880 forward to keep the dream of homeownership alive. So I think there's two tracks here. There's

00:02:17.640 one that the government's doing, they're spending all this money to create housing units. So that's

00:02:23.380 kind of the not on the ownership side, that's on the more of the providing supply for those

00:02:29.260 that can't afford it or need a leg up, I guess, if you will. The other side is the affordability

00:02:34.900 side, which if you're selling, life's pretty good. If you're trying to buy, life is very tough. And

00:02:43.700 that has to do come back to the fact that we continue to print and borrow money at a high rate.

00:02:50.860 And we saw with the budget, we have billions of extra spending, all couched in COVID, right has

00:02:57.420 nothing to do with COVID. But they say we need to spend this and that infrastructure because of COVID.

00:03:02.000 And this is causing that problem that we're trying to identify and talk about today.

00:03:07.520 No, absolutely. And I've spoken about this a few times in the House of Commons.

00:03:14.040 And I'll put it out there. I'm not an economist, but you look at when the government started

00:03:19.540 printing money, and you look at the correlation with the rising cost of housing, there's something

00:03:26.720 there. And really what it comes down to, one of the big reasons why there's an affordability crisis

00:03:33.800 in Canada is that the government of Canada is spending too much money right now. And in the end,

00:03:38.700 that's hurting the people they're purporting to help. And that's a big problem. And frankly, we just

00:03:46.260 have, in some cases, the government's outdone itself, and people are hurting because of that.

00:03:52.500 And it's really, really scary for millennial parents that last year had been saving up for

00:03:59.880 five, seven, 10 years to finally get that first condo, which I might add where I live probably

00:04:05.640 costs over $500,000, or that first house, which a year ago could have been $750,000, which

00:04:12.460 is now a million bucks a year later. And they're left wondering, why did the government do this?

00:04:18.880 And why am I being left in the lurch with no pathway forward? And that's, and that's why I'd

00:04:25.400 really, really begun pushing the supply issue, for example, because no matter who I talk to across the

00:04:32.260 political spectrum, including the new president of CMHC, whom I asked directly, what's the biggest

00:04:39.400 impediment to affordability in Canada? And she said, it's supply. And I asked her again, just to make sure

00:04:43.980 that I was getting this right. What's the biggest impediment to affordability? Supply. We're not

00:04:49.640 building enough in Canada. And then at the same time, we've got a government that's printing money

00:04:54.260 and making the cost of everything go up and up and out of reach of the people they're purporting to

00:04:58.940 help. So Canada has lots of land, lots and lots of land. What is the problem? Why are we not building?

00:05:06.380 Why are we not meeting the laws of supply and demand? Yeah, well, you know what, I will say at some

00:05:12.760 level, it is, and I'm not going to bash in any way on municipalities and the provinces. But a big a big

00:05:19.420 part of the issue we we lack enough supply is that our municipal processes aren't quickly enough.

00:05:26.780 Where the federal government comes in, though, is that we fund a lot of municipal infrastructure,

00:05:31.060 we have the gas tax, we have direct transfers. We did this when when the conservatives were in power

00:05:36.040 too. But we don't see enough approvals for projects. And we see, in some cases, we have

00:05:43.300 nimvious bylaws where there's neighborhoods or communities that don't want to see more densification,

00:05:47.560 for example, or don't have the wherewithal or the ability to, to plan ahead for a major development

00:05:54.300 because they wouldn't know how to go about that process. And that's where the federal government

00:05:58.720 comes in. Because this liberal government continuously, if you speak to parliamentary

00:06:03.920 secretary Adam Vaughn, he says, the government is coordinating its major infrastructure spending

00:06:09.980 with developing new neighborhoods and getting more supply built. And I say prove it and they and they

00:06:16.260 can't, they're just they're just saying that. And the proof, though, is in the spring auditor general

00:06:21.940 reports, which outlines that the government of Canada basically can account for the Canada

00:06:27.040 infrastructure plan. They don't know where they don't know how 1000s of projects are going.

00:06:32.240 If it weren't for the pandemic, I think we'd be hearing a lot more about report nine in the in the

00:06:37.580 spring reports of the auditor general. But basically, the liberal government has a big massive F

00:06:43.320 when it comes to infrastructure spending, which does relate to building more homes and building the

00:06:50.340 neighborhoods and communities that all Canadians want to see. But it's not happening under their watch.

00:06:55.120 Yeah, I think I think also, and I wish I had it in front of me. But there was an article just out

00:07:01.840 this week, I read that in the world rankings, Canada is in the top 10, in terms of crippling

00:07:08.780 bureaucracy when it comes to actually building anything. And we can talk about a subdivision to

00:07:14.260 a major infrastructure project. It's, it's the the rules, the regulations, the red tape, which is in

00:07:20.520 according to this article in the world rankings, just crippling any development, job creation,

00:07:25.800 and progress in a lot of our parts of our country. And that should be extremely concerning.

00:07:32.520 Yeah, I think I might have read the same article. It was based on some reports from Scotiabank in the

00:07:38.260 Globe and Mail. And the president of Scotiabank said, and they outlined that of all developed countries,

00:07:43.620 Prime Minister Trudeau was at the G7 over the weekend. Of all G7 nations, Canada, Canada is the

00:07:50.640 country with the worst record of getting anything built. And as it relates to new housing, we have

00:07:55.620 the worst record as well of any G7 country, we were just really bad at getting things done in this

00:08:00.140 country right now. And the Scotiabank was calling on the federal government to address the supply crisis

00:08:06.580 to work with the private sector, to bring the federal government, municipalities and provinces

00:08:11.080 together at this critical time when homeownership is way, way out of reach for so many people

00:08:16.540 to find a solution because our social well-being, our economic well-being in this country is predicated

00:08:25.200 on the ability of someone to own a home. Like Habitat for Humanity is building a new subdivision in my

00:08:32.420 riding just up the road from my office in Mission British Columbia. And they keep telling me, Brad,

00:08:38.580 when we get people that have never owned a home, their children do better, their children

00:08:44.040 make more money. It is the biggest predictor of how well you're going to do socially and

00:08:50.180 economically in this country. And the liberals are chasing that dream away for new immigrants and

00:08:56.420 young people who just want to have what their parents had. It's not a lot. They just want a place

00:09:02.620 that they can call home and that they can raise their kids in a safe environment. And that's scary that

00:09:08.700 that's being lost.

00:09:10.560 But it's also not that. It's that and more. I think for those on the left, they are quite

00:09:16.320 comfortable with the fact that people become dependent on government. And we all know what

00:09:20.680 happens when you don't have the ability to, perhaps if you choose to get the home that you want

00:09:27.980 and transfer that wealth, whether you sell it, whether you rent it out or whatever, if you're

00:09:33.320 renting forever at the end of that term, you know, you can say you have mortgage for 30 or 35 years

00:09:39.760 at the end of it. Unfortunately, you don't have anything to show for it. You don't have any transfer.

00:09:44.640 And I think that's what the left quite likes is that if they keep people in these in these units,

00:09:51.020 make it so unaffordable for for the average Canadian to buy a house, they will become dependent on

00:09:56.740 government. And and you don't have that, as you say, the ability to kind of climb up the economic

00:10:02.760 ladder. Yeah. And you know what, and it's really, really troubling to see the federal liberals go

00:10:07.820 down that path. Because numerous times in question period last week, numerous times in committee,

00:10:14.240 I've been saying to Minister Hussain, I've been saying to the Prime Minister, what are you doing

00:10:18.720 about the supply crisis in Canada? And time and time again, they refer back to their national housing

00:10:25.480 strategy $70 billion. And I'm thinking, well, what are you doing on the economic side to get more

00:10:31.240 built? What are you doing about productivity? And their answer is, no, everyone, you can depend on

00:10:36.400 the government of Canada for a social housing unit. And that's ludicrous. And it's wrong. And it's not

00:10:42.160 even feasible. And Rami Bowers, that committee, the new CMHC president, and I'm sorry, I keep referring

00:10:49.200 to her. But she said, if without the federal government engaging the private sector, we're going to

00:10:55.780 continue to face the affordability crisis we're facing right now in Canada. But under Justin Trudeau,

00:11:02.480 the liberals refuse to engage the private sector on housing. And that is really, it's erasing the

00:11:09.560 ability of a generation to own a home, and to have that financial and social security that home

00:11:15.900 ownership provides. And it is dangerous what we're doing right now. And not to mention, as you talked

00:11:22.440 about before, the inflationary pressures that we are continuing to face, you know, the value of a

00:11:28.860 dollar isn't the same as it was a couple of years ago. And again, we go back to what the government is

00:11:34.240 doing. They are borrowing and printing money at an outstanding rate without the economic development

00:11:40.860 side behind it, causing that value of the dollar to go down, and the assets to go up. And and it is

00:11:48.740 extremely troubling, because they continue to spend on things that have nothing to do with COVID. But

00:11:55.160 they are saying it has to do with COVID. So example, Brad, you just mentioned infrastructure,

00:12:00.580 Canadian municipalities and provinces get an annual transfer of money for infrastructure,

00:12:05.640 that liberals decided to transfer more money that was printed to those provinces and municipality for

00:12:13.420 infrastructure. But that's not the problem. The problem is with these lockdowns, because the

00:12:17.580 government failed on three things, borders, vaccines and rapid tests, that we weren't able to reopen the

00:12:22.940 economy. So it's government with its boot on the neck of the economy, that's stopping this activity. It's not the

00:12:28.420 financial crisis of 2008.

00:12:29.880 No, no, no. And that's, that's a really good point. And I can, I can, when you're just saying

00:12:36.000 that I'm thinking of so many people in the tourism business in British Columbia right now, who are just

00:12:41.980 so scared about their future. The government of Canada hasn't been engaged, cruise ships are a

00:12:47.660 multi billion dollar industry where I live. And people that come on cruise ships from United States,

00:12:52.800 they travel quite extensively throughout the lower mainland and all of these entrepreneurs that have

00:12:58.360 invested their, their lives into their businesses are questioning whether they're even going to be

00:13:03.000 able to move forward after the pandemic, because the government's been slow, so slow to respond to the

00:13:10.280 very, very unique challenges they're facing. I'll also point out like on the inflationary effect,

00:13:16.040 like I got a lot of people in my riding who worked in, in the, in the trades, who are part of the

00:13:22.220 steelworkers or the Christian Labour Association in Canada, these people make good six figure incomes,

00:13:27.440 and they're telling me with the cost of gas at 145, a head of cauliflower at five bucks after

00:13:33.600 childcare and their mortgage, they got nothing left at the end of the month. And these, these are the

00:13:37.280 people that we, we need to be spent, that need to spend money to keep our economy going. But because

00:13:42.600 of the inflationary effect of this government, of the, of this government's policies, their, their,

00:13:47.540 their life is becoming less and less affordable. And there's long-term and ripple, there's long-term

00:13:52.640 consequences. And there's a ripple effect when, when people have to spend more of their money on

00:13:57.760 certain things and not on others that prop up the economy. So we often hear the Liberals talk about

00:14:02.760 their first time home buyers program. And, and for those that don't know what it is, it is, it's a bit

00:14:08.680 of a disaster because the government's in terms of helping you out with your down payment owns a chunk

00:14:14.980 of your property. And that depending on the value, which in this case, it goes up, the government then

00:14:21.540 owns a bigger piece of your home. So when you sell it, you actually will owe them in many cases,

00:14:27.460 probably a lot more than what you borrowed. Brad, maybe you could tell us a bit about that

00:14:31.900 colossal failure. Yeah. You know what? I'm, I'm baffled by, by this program. You know, some,

00:14:37.820 some private sector companies are starting to look at shared equity mortgages, which help people get

00:14:41.940 into the market. I understand the value of that, but the way the government of Canada program works,

00:14:46.800 it's just ludicrous. First off, you have to qualify. And that's what the stress test and

00:14:51.920 everything else, you got to qualify for a mortgage. And if you do qualify, so the bank and the bank and

00:14:57.820 CMHC have already indicated, according to all the rules and regulations we have, that you can afford

00:15:02.400 this property. Then you can choose whether or not you want to partner with the government of Canada

00:15:06.380 Canada for up to 10% equity share in your home. But the liberals ran on this policy and they,

00:15:14.320 they, I think they first announced it in budget 2019. And they said that it was going to help

00:15:20.040 200,000 people or so in its first two or three years. We're in year three now, and the programs

00:15:26.700 help 10,600 people, according to the most recent report. So whatever the government says they're doing

00:15:34.960 to help first-time buyers, it's not working because people hate the program. Mortgage brokers

00:15:39.880 hate the program. Real estate agents hate the program because people don't want the government

00:15:44.120 of Canada to have a stake in one's primary asset and that's your home. So I think the government's

00:15:50.260 completely missed the mark on this. Canadians have responded and said, hey, it's not working.

00:15:55.840 And I think we need to look at other ways of maybe reducing mortgage costs, extending terms

00:16:04.040 and amortizations to help first-time home buyers. And I should say it wasn't 200,000, it was 100,000.

00:16:10.760 So they've helped like just over 10% of the people they purported to help.

00:16:14.440 Okay. So I think some of our solutions here. Sorry, that was a mouthful.

00:16:19.020 That's okay. We are running out of time. So I think some of the solutions here,

00:16:23.740 stop printing money, stop spending it on programs that have nothing to do with COVID relief. Again,

00:16:28.720 we saw very little in terms of healthcare and long-term care increased spending. A lot of things

00:16:34.640 like the daycare program, the infrastructure above and beyond what was already budgeted,

00:16:39.060 nothing to do with COVID, but they're just spending and spending on pet projects that they feel

00:16:43.820 are necessary. Start building. Let's reopen the economy as quickly and as safely as possible.

00:16:52.620 That means vaccines, first and second shot. We're doing quite well as a country in first shot. Second

00:16:58.700 shot, we dropped down considerably. And so we need those things to all come into play to get people

00:17:05.080 back to work and our economy back on track. Is there anything else you want to add, Brad? I always

00:17:09.500 give the guests the last word. Yeah, no, first off, thanks for having me, Jamie. And you're right.

00:17:13.360 We need a data-driven plan to reopen our economy. What people want is their livelihood. They want

00:17:20.420 their purpose found through gainful employment. And the government's not giving us a jobs plan.

00:17:26.460 And then just going back to housing for a second, the government needs to work with the private sector

00:17:31.180 to get housing built. It's not a fast solution, but it's the best solution to address some of the

00:17:38.600 affordability crisis that we're facing. And I'm happy to be on your show again and look forward to

00:17:44.740 coming on again soon. And yeah, we got a serious problem related to housing. And as a young dad,

00:17:51.300 as a millennial, I know what people are facing right now in this country listening. I know that young

00:17:57.260 families have done everything right. They followed all the rules and the system's failing them.

00:18:03.140 Because the system's failing them, I get that. And I'm working night and day to bring forward

00:18:10.500 policies. And Erin O'Toole's working night and day to bring forward policies that are going to give 1.00

00:18:15.280 you the dream of home ownership again, that are going to give you that foundation of success

00:18:21.000 to go forward in life. And that's our big priority right now. And we got to defeat this Trudeau

00:18:28.560 government. They're destroying our economy. And people are at a loss and we got to keep fighting,

00:18:34.240 Jamie.

00:18:35.620 I couldn't have said it better myself. Well done. Brad Viss, the Member of Parliament for

00:18:39.040 Mission, Matsquee, Fraser Canyon and beautiful British Columbia. Also the Shadow Minister for

00:18:44.600 Housing. We appreciate him coming on the show once again. We do appreciate you for joining us.

00:18:49.900 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Every single Tuesday, we will have new content right through the summer

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00:19:16.340 We will see you again next week. As always, low taxes, less government, more freedom. That is

00:19:22.440 the Blueprints.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - June 16, 2021

Canada’s Housing Affordability Crisis

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