Housing

Question period took up housing affordability. Conservative Mr. Poilievre said homebuilding has fallen, cited a Habitat for Humanity report that most non-homeowners believe they never will own, and urged the Prime Minister to adopt his plan of cutting taxes and rules rather than adding bureaucracy. He also accused the government of using taxpayers’ money to bail out wealthy condo investors. Minister Robertson replied that the government has created Build Canada Homes to build affordable non-market housing, is working with municipalities to speed up construction, has reduced development charges, and introduced a GST break for first-time homebuyers, which he said the Conservatives opposed.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

Official text (opens in a new tab)

4 statements

Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Opposition

Conservative
“The Prime Minister failed to build more homes, and homebuilding has dropped. A new report says most Canadians who do not own a home think they never will, and two-thirds have skipped other bills to pay for housing. I want the Prime Minister to use my plan to build homes instead of adding more bureaucracy.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised that he would double homebuilding, but once again, it was all talk and no results. In fact, homebuilding is down, and today, Habitat for Humanity International published a report showing that 56% of Canadians who do not own homes believe they never will. That is the highest number out of 22 surveyed countries. Also, two-thirds of Canadians have skipped other payments so that they can pay for their housing. Canadians are paying for this costly Prime Minister. When will he adopt our plan to build homes and not bureaucracy?

Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada

Liberal
“The Conservative leader has no plan to fix the housing problem. Our government does. We are building over 19,000 affordable homes right now and helping people in Ontario save money on new homes.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, this summer, when asked what he would do about building housing, said absolutely nothing. That was his response. Leave it to the market to solve all our housing woes. We have established Build Canada Homes to build affordable non-market housing. We have over 19,000 homes under way right now. We are building Canada strong and we are offering Canadians in Ontario up to $200,000 off the price of a new home. This is leadership. We are delivering that. We are delivering the homes that Canadians need.

Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Opposition

Conservative
“The government is using tax dollars from young people who cannot afford a house to bail out rich condo investors. A survey shows that over half of Canadians who do not own a home think they never will. The Prime Minister needs to cut taxes and rules so young people can afford homes.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, I said I would do nothing to bail out Liberal, condo-owning insiders. The Prime Minister wants to force hard-working young people who cannot afford a home to pay taxes to bail out multi-millionaire investors who speculated and lost. Maybe that is why 56% of those who do not own a home revealed in a survey to Habitat for Humanity International that they never will. Again, the question is for the Prime Minister. If he cares enough about those aspiring young people, when will he get government taxes and red tape out of the way so that youth can afford homes?

Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada

Liberal
“We are making it faster and cheaper to build homes. We also cut the GST on new homes. The Conservatives say they care about housing, but they vote against these cuts.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, not only are we cutting red tape, working with local governments to make it faster to build and reducing development charges dramatically, we have also had a first-time homebuyer break on the GST. The Conservatives fought it all last year. They fought against giving first-time homebuyers an opportunity to save on their first home purchase. We went to the next step with a GST break for all Canadians on new homes. Did this have support from the other side? No. Again and again, they say one thing. One might think they care about affordable housing, but they do not give a hoot about it. They never vote for it.

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