Hon. Gregor Robertson · TranslatePolitics.ca

Government Orders

An Act to Authorize Certain Payments to be Made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund

2026-06-16

“I want this bill to pass so the government can spend money to improve housing supply.”

Government Orders

Government Business No. 11—Proceedings on Bill C-26

2026-06-16

“I say nice things about giving money in Ontario. I want everyone to think this plan will build many homes. I don't want to say how many though. I just talk about a market coming alive. I want you to think a more alive market means more homes. I hope most voters won't notice I never said how many actual homes this will build.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, I would say to the member opposite that we need to look at the Ontario example of how this funding is being used. The Ontario government has chosen to deploy it for eliminating the HST for this year to get its housing market going. Getting that housing market going by giving people a discount effectively on a new home is advancing the market. It is getting home builders back to building, because they know the market is coming back alive. I have heard from the members opposite that this has been a crisis, particularly in the GTA, that is related to the housing market. This is how the Ontario government, in partnership with us and resourced by this housing supply bill, is getting that market going and getting homebuyers into homes more affordably. We want to see that happen across the country. I know the provinces and territories have different approaches depending on their markets and their housing contexts. I am looking forward to seeing this deployed in B.C., in my home province, because the metro Vancouver market has very similar challenges to those of the GTA, and I want to see that change. We are receiving a lot of pressure from home builders who are concerned about the markets being flat. That is not surprising given the uncertainty in the world. This is a way to help jump-start and accelerate the markets and get more homes built.

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“I want you to rush this bill through quickly. I promise it will help new homebuyers. The government just needs to approve more spending fast. Look, we spent money in Ontario and more people bought houses! That proves it works.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member. The importance of getting this done is urgent. Really, the example in Ontario is what we are working with. It shows the difference this can make on the ground for the housing market, homebuyers and home builders in Ontario, who need to get going on building more supply. That is the result we are seeing already in Ontario. We met with developers over the last few weeks. The Prime Minister and I were told that we are seeing a 60% to 70% increase in sales volume here in Ottawa, and that is because of the Ontario HST elimination this year. Therefore, we are seeing a direct benefit of the Ontario partnership here. I expect we will see this with provinces and territories across the country as this funding is approved and deployed. This is about collaboration and a partnership of trust. It is about getting the money to the communities and the people, ultimately, so they can buy homes.

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“I want to bait conservatives into saying no, so I can paint them as voting against 'giving people a break'. My bill bribes Ontario with federal cash. If Ontario cuts its sales tax, I want federal taxpayers to pay them back for it.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, well, I have a very simple question for the members opposite: Do they support working with the Government of Ontario to eliminate the HST for one year on new homes up to $1 million? This is exactly what Ontario is doing with the funding related to this housing supply bill. This is exactly what it is doing. It has committed the funding. If the members opposite support giving Ontarians a break on buying a new home up to $1 million, with $130,000 off $1 million, that is what the bill is all about. This is what Ontario is doing. If the Conservatives vote against the bill, they are voting against giving people in Ontario a break on buying a new home and giving home builders in Ontario an opportunity to get more active and make sure they are driving up supply in Ontario. That is what this is about.

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“Attacking the other party looks better than answering the point. I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later. Let's just pass the bill and give out the money.”

“I've talked to committees about the government's housing programs lots of times. I'll go again in the future too. This bill will let us spend lots of money on the provinces for housing. It's so simple! If you don't want to spend this money on housing, then you should vote no.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite well knows that I have appeared before HUMA a number of times to talk about the initiatives we have, as a government, to get affordable housing going, to get Build Canada Homes up and running as a Crown corporation so that it can drive the pace in getting affordable housing built. I have been at HUMA. I have been at other committees as well to make sure we are doing everything we can to advance the work on affordable housing. I will certainly be in front of HUMA again many more times as the housing minister. What we are talking about with this bill is advancing it so we can accelerate, so we can invest in the provinces and territories to get housing supply boosted across Canada right now. It is very simple and straightforward. Members opposite may not want to support investing in provinces and territories. They may not want to invest $1.7 billion in scaling up housing supply. This is an opportunity to say yes to that, and I encourage the members—

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“I really want this bill to pass. The government must spend money so that provinces can build housing. It's a simple idea and we need it urgently. Team Canada will work together to get it done.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, on process, I have spoken to the urgency and simplicity of this bill in entrusting provinces and territories with taking action and deploying this funding to get housing supply scaled up in their jurisdictions. As we have seen with Ontario eliminating the HST, we already have a good example of what can be done. I think the collaboration piece is really critical here. We do rely upon provinces and territories. A member opposite had a question about building codes. There are attempts to harmonize on or to have a smoother flow for the supply chains for homebuilding materials, Canadian materials in particular, and for labour, workers and expertise across the country. We want the provinces and territories working on team Canada to get more housing built. I think it is really critical that, right now, we are investing across the board to facilitate more housing getting built and more interchange between provinces and territories to get that done.

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“Indigenous housing is someone else's department. But we're spending a lot of public money on it. There's money here, money there, money everywhere. It's all very complicated. But trust us, we're on it.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the investment in housing for first nations on reserve is something the Minister of Indigenous Services is responsible for. She currently has an indigenous housing process going to build a strategy, which I will be happy to collaborate with her on. There is indigenous housing funding as well in Build Canada Homes that is focused on urban, rural and northern indigenous housing, which is about a $4‑billion envelope. There are a number of different opportunities for indigenous housing. With this housing supply bill, we are talking about $1.7 billion to the provinces and territories, giving them the discretion to deploy that funding as needed. Some may choose to work with indigenous populations to invest that money on housing. That is their choice.

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“I want to cheer billions in new spending for an undefined housing bill. Let's not pin down which regions need it most. It's called flexibility! And teaming up -- we'll trust the provinces with a lot of money and no further questions. It's not like political incentives could ever warp where that gets spent.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, I think we need to look at what is happening in the member opposite's province. Ontario has been first out of the gate, accepting this funding and deploying it to eliminate the HST, for which members opposite have been calling for months, to take action. I think both sides of the House agree we need to take action to get the housing market going in Ontario and B.C., where it has been stalled. This has done that in Ontario. Ontario is a good example of making a good choice to eliminate the HST for this year and prime the pump on its housing market. That is an example of what we want to see across the country. We would not be prescriptive with provinces and territories. We would be responsive to the needs across the country. We want to be sure that Ontario and B.C. markets are addressed, as they are in a state of relative crisis, but we want to have flexibility with this too. It is a very simple next step and a statement of collaboration with provinces and territories that we would entrust them to do the right thing and take action to deliver on housing.

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“I want to spend money on housing. I don't care about debate or study. Why are you slowing this down? Just give me the money.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, if the members of the opposition are so insistent on debate time, why did they just vote to adjourn the House in the middle of the day on a Tuesday? It does not add up. The bill is all about focusing on delivering results for the housing market, particularly in the member opposite's province, where I live too, B.C. The housing market in metro Vancouver is extremely challenged right now. The Province of B.C. would have the opportunity to deploy this funding to get the province's market going. That is an example. I think we have seen that already happen with Ontario as the first mover taking action to eliminate its HST. We need to get this funding out to communities. That is the priority. It is a very simple and straightforward bill about collaborating, investing in our provinces and territories and making sure that housing is built across Canada.

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“We need Canadians to see us doing something about housing. This bill lets provinces try different things to make housing cheaper by spending money. But government has to do even more things and spend more money on housing.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-26 would be one tool in a large tool box that we need to activate to get the housing market turned around here in Canada, to get more affordable housing built, to make sure we have a healthy housing market and to make sure the homebuilding industry is innovating and advancing to make housing more affordable. This would be one tool in collaboration with the provinces and territories. It would be a direct investment, a transfer, and would give them the flexibility to apply it where needed. Ontario is choosing to eliminate its HST for this year, which I think is having a very positive effect on the market in Ontario. Other provinces and territories would have different approaches depending on their markets, but we have many other tools from Build Canada Homes and reaching home, which is supporting homelessness efforts, to the housing accelerator fund, which works with communities and local governments to cut red tape and get housing built. We have a wide array of tools. We need to continue scaling up the work on those tools, scaling up the investment that is needed to ensure that we have enough affordable housing being built, and to make sure that as a House we are here supporting the efforts and collaboration with all levels of government and the private sector.

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“I want to rush this bill through quickly. People need homes now! This is a huge crisis. But it started 40 years ago. It's not my problem. It's everyone's problem. But my government will fix it. We just need to spend a lot of money. Past governments didn't spend enough. They caused this.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to our predecessors here in the House, there is about 40 years of history of the Government of Canada's neglecting to invest enough in affordable housing. That is what has created the housing crisis today. It has been built up over decades by governments of all stripes. There have been lots of challenges from the local, provincial and territorial levels in not expediting and not approving housing. The challenges have mounted over many years. The government has now been elected to take action. That is what advancing the bill is about: to make sure we are investing, working collaboratively with provinces and territories to get housing built and to get the housing market going again. I know that the opposition housing critic has been very vocal about supporting getting the housing market going. Ontario and B.C. are two of the provinces that are really challenged on housing supply and market. We need to get this money invested on the ground as quickly as possible.

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“Conservatives tried to end the House early today. I want people to think they don't care about affordable housing. There was lots of debate already. I won't mention what parts of the bill they might want to study or debate. Bill C-26 gives $1.7 billion to provinces for housing. That's good. We should pass it quickly. Conservatives try to talk for way too long.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, I am stumped by the actions we just saw in the House from Conservatives, trying to adjourn the House for the day. They just voted to adjourn the House, but fortunately a majority of us are here to do the work and continue with the business of the House. We voted that adjournment motion down. We welcome the debate, in the case of this bill, to advance the work on housing supply. Housing is in a crisis across Canada, and we need to make sure affordability is paramount. The bill is about investing $1.7 billion in provinces and territories to boost their housing supply. It is a very simple, straightforward bill. There have been hours of debate on it. We can contrast that opportunity for members to speak to the bill with what happened yesterday in the House, when the Conservative member for Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford filibustered for hours, preventing many other members from being able to speak in the debate in the House. I know there are lots of games being played around adjournment and filibustering. The bill is about getting funding to the people on the ground in our country who need affordable housing.

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“I promise you my new housing agency will not forget rural Canada this time. Northern Canada, especially, needs more housing supply boosted. My new money will go through provinces and territories -- they will decide the details for where it goes. Ontario wants to use its money to remove the HST on home sales. That helps homebuyers and builders in Ontario cities and towns.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, we absolutely cannot forget about the important housing needs in smaller communities. Rural Canada faces many of the same challenges in terms of affordability and housing supply. Particularly in the north, housing supply is a huge challenge. Build Canada Homes is an agency focused on making sure the supply side is boosted, but in this case, the funding would be going to the provinces and territories. Ontario has given us the first example of what can be done. It is choosing to use its funding to effectively eliminate the HST for homebuyers throughout Ontario. It would benefit homebuyers and home builders, by extension, across all of Ontario, from urban to rural. Obviously that is a much-needed break on the HST for the homebuyers. That would be provided for in Ontario because of the housing supply bill.

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“I'm spending $1.7 billion of taxpayers' money to get more houses built. Ontario gets some of that money. Home-buyers could save up to $130,000 in tax. Ontario has other ways to save them $70,000 more. We think more subsidies will help even though we have too many houses already. We want the housing market to pick up everywhere.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, just to be clear, this debate is about the housing supply act before the House, which is about $1.7 billion that would be distributed among the provinces and territories to boost housing supply. We already have an uptake on this with the province of Ontario. It was announced a few months ago. Ontario, thanks to the federal support that is tied to the bill, would be rebating the full 13% of the harmonized sales tax, the HST, on new homes up to $1 million. Buyers of those new homes up to $1 million could save up to $130,000. When we combine that with the initiative around reducing development charges, which is 30% to 50% with municipalities in Ontario and is administered by the province of Ontario, it is an additional up to $70,000. All this is in response to the crisis that Ontario, particularly the GTA, has had with the housing market. There is oversupply in the housing market and other challenges, such as uncertainty in the market, buyers not buying and builders not being able to move on projects. This is about getting the housing market going across the country, particularly in Ontario and B.C.

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“I want debate to end so we can pass this quickly.”

Oral Questions

Housing

2026-06-11

“I want to spend more taxpayer money on a government housing program. It will be great. Anyone who disagrees with me is against affordable housing.”

Oral Questions

Labour

2026-06-11

“Don't worry. The government spends your money the right way.”

Oral Questions

Housing

2026-06-10

“I want everyone to vote for our housing bill. Our government will look good if we pass a bill to build houses.”

Oral Questions

The Economy

2026-06-10

“I want you to know that people in B.C. are optimistic. I see good things happening in B.C. The other side of the House opposes those good things. We want to support Canadians and deliver affordability. We don't want to be stuck in the mud.”