“I think a government agency to build houses will get too big and expensive. How many managers will it have? Will they get high pay and bonuses before they build any houses?”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
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Build Canada Homes Act
A bill to create another Crown corporation to "support" affordable housing. In debate, the Liberals claimed this bill would make a real difference, while the Conservatives pointed out it contains no actual targets or measures and will just add more bureaucracy. Liberals also congratulated themselves a lot on their alleged progress on housing overall.
“Housing got too expensive under Trudeau. Parents in my riding are sad because their grown children can't afford to move out. The government promised to build new houses but they aren't building enough. The government should build more houses.”
“I am speaking against the Build Canada Homes Act. The government promised to build many homes. They have not built them. Home prices are still high. The government's solution is more bureaucracy and spending. I think this will not work. Conservatives have better ideas to help build more homes. The government should listen to our ideas.”
“The Harper government had good housing policies. People could spend their own money on their own homes. There were tax breaks for new homebuyers. People could use their retirement savings too. This helped build lots of homes. We didn't spend too much. We had rules so people could afford their mortgages. We built two million homes with only three million more people. The Liberals are not doing a good job like we did.”
“The Liberals say they have a housing plan, but there are no numbers in it. The Saskatchewan government had a real plan with real numbers. They promised to build specific numbers of homes under each program. The Liberals should have to say how many homes their plan will build and what kind of homes.”
“I'm not going to say anything concrete about the housing bill. Instead I'll just string together some partisan buzzwords: global agenda, central bankers, scarcity, socialist spending. The real problem is the government spends money on things. I don't like that. It's why we have a deficit.”
“You say my kids would love a carbon tax? They can't even afford a house thanks to your government's disasters.”
“We don't need another bureaucracy. We need to get government out of the way so builders can build more homes and fix this housing crisis.”
“I want the member to look at reports that say the government isn't being transparent about its housing initiatives. The government should show the kinds of housing it is building and whether it will meet the needs of families.”
“The other side should think about how government taxes and fees drive up the cost of housing. One third of the cost of a home is from government taxes, fees, and delays. That's too much. It makes housing too expensive for young people.”
“My kids had trouble affording a home. The government isn't helping. They aren't building enough homes for young people. They're wasting time making new bureaucracies instead of fixing the problem.”
“I want the different governments to work together on housing. But the real goal should be to spend less money and make it faster to build houses. That's what the federal government should focus on.”
“I want to put the Bloc in a political bind. Will you vote yes and admit this bill is bad for your forestry programs? Or vote no and look like you're against a housing bill with 'Canada' in the name?”
“This bill will build barely 1% of the homes we need. Why spend so many billions for almost nothing?”
“I'm against this housing bill. Crown corporations are slow and expensive. Real home builders say the government should set clear goals for this bill. My old government's housing plan had real targets. This plan costs $13 billion with no targets. I bet a lot of that money will just go to Crown executive bonuses, not homes.”
“I don't have to be brave. Provinces need some federal money, but the federal government doesn't need to be in the homebuilding business or pick winners and losers. Just help fund the provinces.”
“The company gave big bonuses to executives while building zero kilometers of rail. I want my colleague to talk about interest rates and money affecting homebuilding. How is the government making those things worse?”
“The dollar's value is dropping and inflation is up because the government spends too much. The PBO says the deficit will be $50 billion higher than they said a few months ago. The government's reckless spending is leaving Canadians with less money. And they still haven't fixed the softwood tariff with the U.S. like they said they would. That's driving up homebuilding costs too.”
“It's not the federal government's job to decide who gets a house. Local governments can do that. The feds should just give them money and get out of the way. We should help vulnerable people. I helped do that in Saskatchewan.”
“This bill spends too much money. It won't build enough houses. It will just make housing more expensive. The government should stop piling on costs and debt. They should make it easier to build cheaper houses instead.”