The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - National Debt + Taxpayer Dollars = No Solution for Housing

00:00:00.000 hello and welcome once again to the blueprints it's canada's conservative podcast i'm your host

00:00:15.620 jamie schmale member of parliament for halliburton core the lakes brock thank you once again for

00:00:19.780 joining us we've got a great show as usual lined up for you today we're going to talk about housing

00:00:25.480 and the incentive to try to get into the home ownership market and the problems and the

00:00:31.020 barriers people are facing as they get into it so as we do the show although some people might not

00:00:36.720 be able to watch the whole thing live on facebook we ask that you again like comment subscribe share

00:00:43.320 this program help us push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda maybe maybe get into

00:00:48.520 some of your networks where we can hit voters who are open to hearing the conservative message and

00:00:53.200 that's why we need your help too and if you can't watch it all today on facebook you can download

00:00:58.040 it later on platforms like cast box itunes google play you name it it's out there and it's great

00:01:04.820 content with amazing guests and this week we have a returning guest a good friend of the program we

00:01:09.940 have brad viss the member of parliament for mission matsui fraser canyon in beautiful british columbia

00:01:15.420 he's also the shadow minister for housing brad thank you again for coming on the program

00:01:19.900 jamie i am honored to be here today with you thank you so much for inviting me my friend

00:01:25.700 you're always full of energy that's why we have you on the program so let's get right into it housing

00:01:30.880 we know it's a problem for pretty much anyone unless you're uber rich to getting into the market

00:01:36.780 or moving around within the housing market we have through the pandemic seen the price of real estate

00:01:43.640 in in my area start to skyrocket because people are leaving the cities and coming into the suburbs

00:01:49.960 into the rural areas which again is driving up price supply and demand and uh the liberals came up

00:01:56.760 with because of the pandemic came up with a program a few of them let's start with the rapid housing

00:02:02.560 initiative that's a billion dollars to try to get people that can't or aren't into housing now

00:02:09.360 into it as fast as possible maybe you can quickly give us a quick synopsis of the program and some

00:02:15.640 of the concerns we have as an opposition to some of the solutions you have as critic

00:02:19.680 yeah well thank you um so a few months ago the um minister hussen announced a uh one billion dollar

00:02:27.820 fund to create up to three thousand permanent affordable housing units across canada um when the program

00:02:36.840 was announced i know a lot of housing providers were excited about it a program that was going to

00:02:42.660 cut the red tape uh get the money out the door really really quickly uh trans uh go forward a few

00:02:49.200 months and the minister makes another announcement and said well actually there's only 500 million

00:02:55.120 dollars that you can apply for the other five million dollars has been allocated to uh big cities

00:03:02.680 across canada i think uh surrey vancouver toronto montreal uh received the lion's share of funding

00:03:09.160 but the rest of the country can apply for the other 500 million dollars through a cumbersome

00:03:17.140 application process and in addition we're not actually going to have those 3 000 units built in

00:03:23.340 six months as we promised uh it's actually a double that we need to see that construction completed

00:03:29.480 in 12 months so if you're take a step back and you like i'm in mission british columbia right now

00:03:36.900 in mission the homelessness population has doubled uh since the last uh uh count by the by the district

00:03:48.180 um for a smaller municipality say in in any rural community across canada where homelessness and uh drug

00:03:57.620 and mental health addictions issues exist as well uh they don't have the staff they don't have the

00:04:05.360 resources to even put towards a program that they might get funding for so i i think it was a little

00:04:13.580 dishonest of the liberal government to say they're going to build 3 000 units really rapidly and it's going

00:04:20.120 to be available for all people the reality is is that communities that you represent jamie and

00:04:26.000 communities many of which are in my riding too in rural canada uh don't aren't going to be able to

00:04:32.140 access those funds because they just don't have the manpower even though uh there is a need uh for that

00:04:39.200 to take place um so and i'd also point out that when all of those those funds were given to toronto and

00:04:47.080 vancouver where the need is real where was the government uh for the north of canada i just heard

00:04:53.880 from the um minister the the minister responsible for housing in the northwest territories and we all

00:05:01.140 know that in the north of canada the housing needs are more acute where was the government's program for

00:05:07.260 the territories to uh house people up there where the conditions are way more severe than anywhere else in

00:05:13.700 the country they they have no answers um on that program well they did have a program they had one

00:05:19.440 program it was the equity sharing program which was oh if for for for people if who might uh might

00:05:26.460 be tuning in may not hear about this they announced this a few budgets ago where the federal government

00:05:31.220 would invest in your house they would basically take a 10 up to 10 ownership of your house now

00:05:37.500 that 10 percent grows with the value of your home so you your share of the what you owe the federal

00:05:44.940 government which you will have to give them back starts to grow as the value of your your investment

00:05:49.540 grows and uh maybe you can talk about that because that was not picked up anywhere near and i think we

00:05:55.940 as the opposition pointed that out in the last parliament that this program would be a failure and would

00:06:01.100 caution people because who wants the government owning a piece of your home yeah you know what you're

00:06:06.680 you're right on the mark there and i remember doing a town hall as the uh conservative candidate in

00:06:14.480 advance of the 2019 election uh pointing out that very that that very fact and if i remember correctly

00:06:22.560 evan sadal and the liberals insisted that this program this equity sharing program with the federal

00:06:27.800 government would help a hundred thousand uh canadians buy a home and the cmhc set a target for uh for the

00:06:34.980 program's first six months of operation of 20 000 households and just yesterday actually i got an

00:06:41.820 order paper question back and uh and it's very evident that canadians don't want the government

00:06:47.860 owning part of their house and the programs only helped uh 5 298 people in seven months and uh and but

00:06:57.500 this is this is the key statistic um only 66 percent of the people approved actually took the loan

00:07:04.420 because when they realized that the government was going to own their primary asset the majority of

00:07:09.740 canadians thought you know that doesn't sit well with me why would i want justin trudeau and the liberals

00:07:14.820 owning my uh my house um what's what's very interesting is that in vancouver there was only a single

00:07:21.980 person that that used this program one person in all of vancouver and in toronto it's not much better

00:07:28.160 there was only 16 people 16 people 16 people in toronto and one in vancouver one in vancouver

00:07:35.860 so this was supposed to be the liberals big answer to housing affordability and the real uh challenges

00:07:43.720 that canadians face uh in some overpriced markets but it was a big fail and you know i've

00:07:51.960 spoken to the mortgage professionals of canada recently and they said they they outlined the

00:07:57.800 same uh uh sentiment that you did that why do i want why would a consumer want the government of

00:08:03.660 canada owning part of their primary asset and they said well we could achieve the same types of savings

00:08:10.260 uh that people that do qualify this program by doing what we proposed in the last federal election

00:08:16.020 and that's increase the amortization for first-time buyers from 25 to 30 years only for first-time buyers

00:08:24.100 that would achieve the same relative savings uh for a first-time home buyers than the um out-of-touch

00:08:32.000 uh liberal uh government knows best approach well as as most people know and those trying to get into

00:08:39.780 the housing market for the first time or otherwise do realize that that owning a home is is almost the

00:08:46.560 essence of freedom right you you get to have your your building your structure or your piece of land

00:08:52.260 you can build on it you can grow things on it you can do a lot of things obviously within reason but it

00:08:57.360 is the essence of freedom and that that that equity that you gain through the the purchase of property

00:09:06.400 allows you to climb the economic ladder allows you to do investments allows you to improve it

00:09:11.220 and and allows the the the rising of the tide if you will of of people trying to climb the economic

00:09:18.020 ladder so the government when they put roadblocks from people acquiring housing that's a significant

00:09:25.240 barrier because when when the government doesn't allow people to get into that that that market you

00:09:32.420 almost make it harder for people to to lift themselves up or climb the ladder itself yeah and

00:09:39.760 you know jamie what's even worse is that i was uh sitting around having a cup of tea with my mother the

00:09:45.080 other day and uh she's a retiree she's in her late 60s and her home that she owns outright it's a it's a

00:09:53.340 modest townhouse in abbotsford in a 35 or 50 plus um age uh restriction unit and um and when she heard

00:10:03.420 that the liberals were studying the possibility of taxing that equity she she lost it i i she was

00:10:13.160 legitimately concerned so and uh and that's what i'm really concerned about too is that we're going to

00:10:19.100 see some taxes on middle class hard-working canadians that put everything into that house

00:10:27.300 to achieve that freedom to have those options and that security for their family and uh we don't know

00:10:34.480 what the liberals are going to do but i i don't think it's going to be uh necessarily in the best

00:10:39.180 interest of homeowners well doesn't that scare you now now think about this for the second so

00:10:43.040 during the last election the ontario liberal caucus put forward a series of ideas to the national

00:10:49.740 council to consider as their platform and one of that as you just mentioned was the taxation of the

00:10:54.680 proceeds on the sale of your primary residence something that is not subject to that kind of

00:11:00.300 taxation level now that continued there's been a number of articles in a bunch of mainstream media

00:11:06.220 outlets there's also been as you mentioned a study by the canada mortgage and housing corporation

00:11:10.400 on that very issue not only that just coming out this past week there is another report from i believe

00:11:17.160 deutsche bank who suggested taxing people who are staying at home because you are not going out and

00:11:23.400 about and actually providing the revenue for government that it needs so on one hand you have government with

00:11:28.880 massive spending the taxation level coming down because businesses are closing or have closed or have

00:11:34.680 locked down or have slowed down the economic activity isn't there so the revenue isn't coming in

00:11:39.580 but you have the big spending so you need to pass collect that the the money to pay the bills

00:11:44.360 somehow although justin trudeau is printing a lot of that through the central bank um this this is kind of

00:11:51.420 concerning if if you're said stay home be safe but we're going to tax you potentially you know this is just

00:11:56.740 a study but they're they're looking for ideas on how to to find new sources of revenue and of course the

00:12:03.940 carbon tax went up so this is extremely concerning if if these roadblocks are keeping people out of

00:12:09.800 the housing market market yeah and uh i would say too that we're about to uh realize a cpp uh increase

00:12:16.860 as well that the liberals instituted that's going to hit uh businesses and individuals pretty hard in

00:12:22.440 the new year um but on that point uh i i was in the house of commons two weeks ago and i had the

00:12:27.660 opportunity to debate on c4 the minister of finance i asked her repeatedly why has the government not

00:12:35.000 updated their reporting of public accounts why has the government failed to give canadians clarity

00:12:40.740 on a budget why has the government not followed through with the level of transparency that our

00:12:46.780 parliamentary budget officer uh said was needed for canada's economic recovery it's because they're

00:12:53.740 looking at new ways that they can tax canadians that they can uh penalize people who made responsible

00:13:01.480 decisions that's what i'm very afraid of right now and that's why we got to keep our guard up and we

00:13:07.100 got to keep pushing them in the house of commons on all of their government program spending and and

00:13:13.860 whether it's actually serving the best interests of canadians in a timely way well not just housing

00:13:21.440 brad i think you touched on it just a second ago it's not just housing that's going up uh it's

00:13:25.380 everything the cost of groceries home heating fuel everything is going up and i'm hearing and i'm sure

00:13:30.940 you are too that the cost of living is just getting overwhelming right now while paychecks are not

00:13:35.940 raising to the level that allows people to to comfortably live in a lot of cases and and and a lot

00:13:43.540 of that of course has to do with the pandemic but it also has to do with the fact that the taxes

00:13:48.720 on these products keep increasing such as the carbon tax that went up in in the middle of the

00:13:54.700 pandemic that put more of a strain on the cost of groceries on heating on fuel itself which is often

00:14:02.300 used in many many cases pretty much all to get the products from either the farm where they have to pay

00:14:10.040 a tax to dry the the crops to the the warehouse to the grow the end user the retail outlet or to the

00:14:18.140 consumer all of that has a cascading increased effect yeah and i know that all too well in british

00:14:25.320 columbia where i live we have by far the highest carbon tax in canada and we also have by far the

00:14:33.660 highest cost of living in the country as well and let me tell you if canadians were paying less taxes

00:14:40.140 on the goods that they purchase that are necessary for their family's well-being there would be more

00:14:46.500 young canadians able to enter the housing market sooner taxation uh the high the higher consumption

00:14:53.980 higher consumption taxes carbon taxes all prevent younger canadians from having the liberty to save

00:15:01.620 up and put more away towards their first home and that affordability equation is so key to our economic

00:15:08.740 recovery and um and what we do to help canadians enter the housing market so brad i know you're

00:15:16.240 working hard and so is the caucus on coming up with with some ideas to continue on with into the

00:15:22.000 coming weeks months potentially into the next campaign um our leader erin o'toole laid out a

00:15:27.880 series of ideas on housing within his leadership platform is there anything you're able to to share

00:15:33.560 with us on on how how you know what potentially could be ahead and what the conservatives will be

00:15:40.500 proposing as an alternative to what the liberals are doing yeah well one thing um i was reading some of

00:15:45.740 the housing statistics on canada this morning in preparation for our discussion today and despite being

00:15:52.380 in a national in a pan in a global pandemic um i i learned that the average home price in canada has

00:15:59.960 now reached over six hundred thousand dollars and that's an eighteen percent increase uh over last

00:16:06.320 year and in the housing statistics i um i read it said that there is still a lot of demand and foreign

00:16:14.460 investment in our residential housing market um so i think as as in british columbia right now where

00:16:20.880 there's a commission going on about money laundering and the impact that has partly on the housing sector

00:16:26.940 but there there's a lot that we can do uh to make sure that canadians come first in purchasing a home

00:16:33.400 in canada uh that maybe we we look closely about how as we do in british columbia and in ontario as well

00:16:39.680 how we tax uh foreign buyers trying to enter the market when i speak to young conservatives in vancouver

00:16:46.020 they they implore me to take action to make sure that they have a better opportunity than a foreign

00:16:53.760 investor being able to get into their their first home so i'm looking closely at that another area

00:16:59.500 that i'm looking closely at is uh incentivizing the creation of rental stock in our market um so i know

00:17:06.800 our leader campaigned on a promise to uh review how capital gains are used on reinvesting in rental

00:17:15.080 properties i think that's a very solid idea um there's a lot of proponents in the industry as well

00:17:21.060 that are seeking uh gst rebates uh for those that are entering uh or developing rental housing uh so

00:17:28.920 we need to look very very closely at building the type of housing stock uh that's going to serve the

00:17:34.680 interest of of canadians uh first and foremost um finally there is as you know the the liberal

00:17:41.220 government did announce in their speech from the throne that they wanted to completely eliminate

00:17:46.200 housing uh sorry homelessness in uh canada and part of that was going to be done through their uh

00:17:52.280 national housing uh policies uh a big part of that is the uh the co-investment fund uh put forward by the

00:18:00.520 government and what we've heard and and seen in parliament and from stakeholders all across canada

00:18:06.040 is that again the liberals primary program uh to help build stock for for long-term care uh for seniors that need

00:18:14.760 housing uh to work with non-for-profit housing societies across canada that that main conduit

00:18:20.940 with cmhc is that the program isn't working very well and i know uh both you and i and committee were

00:18:27.220 asking evan sadal on on some of the numbers from cmhc and the programs they've actually approved

00:18:32.380 and we weren't able to get those answers unfortunately um but we're gonna we're gonna continue

00:18:37.360 pushing on that even this afternoon when we go into uh committee together but what what i've heard

00:18:42.840 from stakeholders and canadians that are really really trying to make a difference and build

00:18:48.400 stronger communities and that's what the conservative party is all about is that government programs right

00:18:53.900 now are not working for them uh for example the canadian housing and renewal association uh not an

00:19:00.980 organization uh well an organization that encompasses uh many many non-for-profit housing providers across

00:19:07.540 canada they're saying that just to do an application for the government program they're not getting

00:19:14.000 responses for over a year uh there's no uh standards applied uh to the public servants and the cmhc

00:19:22.540 officials in um processing their application uh for for housing providers uh for community groups that

00:19:30.160 put up put a lot of capital up front uh to develop a project uh to lack that certainty from the federal

00:19:37.800 government is really really detrimental so we need to take a really hard look look at the national

00:19:43.860 co-investment fund how those funds are being dispersed and and what projects are being approved and how long

00:19:49.920 those projects are taking to get approved so we really really need to take a hard hard look i've heard in my

00:19:56.020 own community that it's just not the the program is just too cumbersome to even apply for uh it doesn't

00:20:02.520 it's it's it's not easy to do and people are frankly uh very uh upset with it um so we need to we need to

00:20:10.600 adjust that we need to help first-time home buyers uh we we need to look at uh taxation and how it relates

00:20:18.940 to affordability and but first and foremost we need to ensure that all of our policies are designed

00:20:25.940 in a way that are helping canadian families have a foundation for success i think as conservatives

00:20:32.760 uh we want to build up individuals and families to make good choices and in order for them to make

00:20:39.980 good choices we need to make sure that our policies and programs are responding directly to their needs

00:20:46.960 and we need to just really take a bird's eye view of these government programs and readjust them

00:20:53.240 to be more responsive and accountable to the people that are paying for them in the first place

00:20:58.020 well done brad viss that is a perfect way to end it unless you have anything else to add because

00:21:03.440 question period is coming up and we don't want to take away from from that yeah i'm gonna add we got i

00:21:08.680 see a question period is going to start in uh five minutes here um but just on your very first point

00:21:14.420 about some of the changes we've seen since covet 19 and um i i will say just more broadly speaking that

00:21:23.400 in some respects it's nice to see more families moving to rural canada and the vibrancy that's

00:21:31.840 bringing and the quality of life that people are finding in um mid-sized communities like abbotsford

00:21:39.300 where i live but also in other areas of my riding in the vancouver sun this week they talked about

00:21:44.980 liliouette uh liliouette is um traditionally a forest community uh there is a vibrant first nations

00:21:52.640 um the statlian people there are doing great things economically and more people are seeing these small

00:22:00.560 rural communities and they're saying hey this is where i want to raise my kids because there is a

00:22:05.300 um a great social fabric you know your neighbors it's a great place to live and that's maybe one

00:22:11.640 positive thing uh we're seeing with these housing trends right now is that people are rediscovering

00:22:16.820 rural canada and that's why we got to get a good uh rural broadband policy so they can keep doing their

00:22:22.080 jobs and uh and and and make money for their families beautiful thank you very much brad vish this

00:22:28.820 sorry member of parliament for mission matskwee frazier canyon also the shadow minister for housing a good

00:22:34.400 friend of the show and always welcome on if you want to come on again jamie thank you so much really

00:22:39.760 appreciate the opportunity today new content coming every tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time please feel free

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00:23:15.140 all today please download it later on platforms like castbox itunes google play spotify you name it

00:23:21.260 it's out there together we can push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda question period is coming

00:23:26.660 up starting at 2 p.m eastern time feel free to join it our leaders page erin o'toole as well as party

00:23:32.760 headquarters will be sharing that feel free to stick around and as mentioned again new content

00:23:36.960 every tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time is when we go live once again thank you for joining us and as

00:23:42.560 always low taxes less government more freedom that's the blue bridge thanks for joining us keep rocking it

00:23:48.760 happy day Optimus to your time and you came here in the scene maximum hope you ask that real start

00:23:51.140 ט being реal player to join a monster at a time COM we're gonna save that goal is not fully

00:23:58.760 so just looking forward to this all time makes you stronger and we're going to have that goal now and

00:24:04.440 you're going to come back all because the right book is trying to cover what you want every slash

00:24:05.860 we aren't going to have there and I'm excited to come back up with me for an bio

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - November 17, 2020

National Debt + Taxpayer Dollars = No Solution for Housing

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