Marc Dalton

Madam Speaker, Claims · 170 wordsI was an MLA in British Columbia in the years coinciding with when the Conservatives were in power under former prime minister Stephen Harper.¹ Those were the years when Canada, and more specifically B.C., was moving forward. Projects were getting built under a free enterprise provincial and federal government. In my riding, there is the Golden Ears Bridge, the Pitt River Bridge, the Port Mann Bridge and the expansion of the Trans-Canada Highway. The highway that used to go between Vancouver and Squamish was called the highway of death because of all the fatalities there. That was expanded. There is Kicking Horse Pass. The Olympics happened.² There is the Canada Line, the convention centre and a new stadium, new hospitals and new schools. All throughout British Columbia there was tremendous progress, and I know that this was the same throughout the country. The New York Times, during that period, said that Canada had the richest middle class in the world.³ We had a dollar at par with the American dollar.⁴ Anecdote · 34 wordsI would talk to Americans and others visiting Canada and visiting Victoria, where I often was for my government work. They were amazed by the prosperity they saw in British Columbia and in Canada.Anecdote Claims · 76 wordsLet us keep in mind that between 2007 and mid-2009, the world underwent the great global recession. It was the most severe economic and financial meltdown since the Great Depression in the late twenties and the thirties, impacting housing significantly. Canada weathered this storm very well, and we were number one in growth.⁵Off point Between 2006 and 2015, under Stephen Harper, there were two million housing starts in Canada, ⁶while the population growth was about 3.2 million.⁷ Reasoning · 17 wordsUsing household sizes, those starts were enough to accommodate more people than the population during that period.Partly on point Claims · 7 wordsCanada fared the best in the G7.⁸ Positioning · 10 wordsWe were a prosperous nation going from strength to strength.PositioningOff point Procedure · 3 wordsFast-forward to 2026.Procedure Positioning · 26 wordsAfter 11 long years under the Liberal government and under two Liberal prime ministers, we have gone from boom to gloom and from first to worst.Positioning Claims · 94 wordsThere has been economic stagnation and decline under the Liberals. In three of the last four quarters, we have shrunk.⁹ We are in a recession. We are the only country in the G20 with an economy that is shrinking.¹⁰Partly on point The G20 includes nations such as Argentina, which was an economic basket case not so long ago; Australia; Brazil; China; France; Germany; India; Indonesia; Italy; Japan; Mexico, whose number one trading partner is the U.S., ¹¹as it is for Canada; Russia; Saudi Arabia; South Africa; South Korea; Turkey; the United Kingdom and the United States.Off point Positioning · 17 wordsI know that the Liberals would like to blame the U.S. for all the problems Canada faces, PositioningClaims · 15 wordsbut all these countries are impacted by U.S. tariffs, and some are in war zones.Partly on point Procedure · 9 wordsHowever, credit must be given where credit is deserved.Procedure Positioning · 21 wordsThe Liberals excel, get an A, for building bureaucracy, increasing red tape and doling out money to friends, family and themselves.Positioning Claims · 18 wordsSince I was elected to the House of Commons in 2019, it has been one scandal after another. Aside · 6 wordsWe get numb after a while.Aside Claims · 46 wordsThe Conservatives had their scandals also. One lady, a cabinet minister, resigned for having a $16 glass of orange juice.¹²Off point The Prime Minister promised to double housing construction to half a million homes a year and to move at speeds we have not seen in generations.¹³ Positioning · 5 wordsHow has that turned out?Positioning Claims · 72 wordsMore than one year in, the result is the exact opposite: Partly on pointfewer permits, fewer starts, and a housing crisis that keeps getting worse. For example, Toronto has experienced a major housing construction downturn, a crash. Starts are down more than 50% in the last three years.¹⁴ New condo sales in the GTA collapsed to 1,599 units in 2025, the lowest annual total in 35 years and 91% less than the 10-year average.¹⁵ Procedure · 7 wordsHowever, this must be kept in context.Procedure Claims · 95 wordsCanada’s population has increased by 2.5 million people in the last three years alone, under the Liberals’ chaotic handling of immigration.¹⁶ Construction should be skyrocketing, not plummeting. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says that we need to build 480,000 homes a year for the next decade.¹⁷ We are expected to build only half of that this year and only 212,000 units by 2028.¹⁸ Meanwhile, 131,000 Canadians who used to work in construction are unemployed as of April, ¹⁹and half of home builders and contractors are reporting layoffs in the first quarter of this year.²⁰ Positioning · 83 wordsMaybe there is a strategy under this political madness. Maybe the intention is to make things so bad that when there is a change, and I think there was some positive news with the numbers today, the Liberals will blow the trumpets, bang on the drums and say how they have turned things around, how marvellous things have become. However, this is a fail. It is not a new day. It is not a new government. It is the same old, same old.PositioningPartly on point Claims · 61 wordsInstead of a plan to build homes, the Liberals would deliver a fourth housing bureaucracy. Far from building at generational speeds, they have taken a year to introduce legislation that still builds no homes. Even when homes start getting built, the Parliamentary Budget Officer found, Build Canada Homes would add just 5,000 homes per year, 1% of what the Liberals promised.²¹ Reasoning · 34 wordsWe can do the math on how much is being invested right there and what that equates to as far as cost per unit. It is more bureaucracy, more red tape and more cost. Claims · 55 wordsI recently held a round table with builders and developers. They are asking for less government in the homebuilding process, not more. Ever-increasing regulations are killing the market and driving up construction costs. Federal, provincial and municipal regulations and taxes are all adding costs, not just for the builder but also for the home purchaser. Reasoning · 22 wordsIf we are to make housing affordable for Canadians, we need to cut the cost of building and to build more, faster. Claims · 13 wordsBill C‑20 would not build, and it would not cut costs for builders. Positioning · 4 wordsWhat would it do?Positioning Claims · 7 wordsIt would build a fourth government bureaucracy. Positioning · 6 wordsThat is an F, for “fail”.Positioning Claims · 4 wordsI was a teacher.Off point Procedure · 8 wordsWe can see the stats here very clearly.Procedure Claims · 42 wordsCanadians used to be able to buy their first home in their twenties or early thirties. Realtors in Vancouver tell me that it is now an anomaly for new homebuyers to purchase a place without getting significant financial help from their family. Reasoning · 15 wordsThis is building a sharp divide in Canadian society between the haves and the have-nots. Positioning · 4 wordsThis is not good.Positioning Reasoning · 25 wordsIt is becoming dependent upon generational wealth rather than on someone’s being able to make it on their own, even with a supposedly great salary. Claims · 50 wordsConservatives have a plan: Cut the GST on all new homes under $1.3 million, saving families up to $65,000 and unleashing new building; ²²tie federal infrastructure dollars to homebuilding, with municipalities having to permit at least 15% more homebuilding each year to get things done; ²³cut development charges by 50%, ²⁴Reasoning · 13 wordsbecause the number one cost of construction is all the regulations and permitting; Claims · 25 wordsand end the capital gains tax on reinvestments in new housing in Canada and unlock billions of dollars of investment in the country’s homebuilding sector.²⁵ Reasoning · 18 wordsCanadians should be able to earn a strong paycheque in a thriving economy to buy an affordable home. Claims · 6 wordsIt used to be this way, Reasoning · 7 wordsand it can be this way again.