Gregor Robertson

In response to a question from Ginette Petitpas Taylor

“I want the federal government to partner with New Brunswick to build affordable homes. New Brunswick is ready to help manage these housing projects across the province, which makes it easier for us to invest.”

“Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her leadership on behalf of New Brunswick. Like the members of Parliament from New Brunswick, we are very encouraging of Build Canada Homes and New Brunswick partnering to maximize the opportunity to build affordable housing across New Brunswick. The Government of New Brunswick has been a leader, as the member said, in being one of the first provinces to step forward. As I mentioned earlier, with the opportunity to build in communities of all shapes and sizes, the province has put together projects across New Brunswick. It is bringing that portfolio forward and will help manage the delivery of that housing, which is fantastic. It makes it much more streamlined for Build Canada Homes to be able to invest, knowing that the province is overseeing that portfolio, and many communities are being served at the same time. I give a big thanks to New Brunswick for leading the way on that and to the members for supporting that.”

In response to a question from Jeremy Patzer

“This new housing agency will focus on using Canadian wood to build homes. This will support forestry jobs and manufacturing across the country.”

“Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member’s concern around softwood. We see enormous opportunity with Build Canada Homes to focus on building with Canadian wood. That would benefit our industries from B.C. to Quebec and New Brunswick, provinces that rely heavily on softwood and forestry. We have real opportunities to scale up the value-added industry and make sure we are protecting jobs with softwood here in Canada. Buy Canadian is a key element with Build Canada Homes. That has gone into the investment criteria. We are seeing proposals come in that would use Canadian wood to build. We want to see, in the manufacturing sector, mass timber and value-added products built with Canadian wood. That is our focus with Build Canada Homes, making sure we do everything we can to use Canadian materials, to strengthen Canadian homebuilding and manufacturing, right into the forest industry. I am working in collaboration with the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources to make sure we are maximizing that opportunity and supporting that industry.”

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In response to a question from Scott Aitchison

“Our goal is to build as many affordable homes as possible with this money. We want to fund different kinds of housing, including supportive homes, rentals, co-ops, and middle-class homes.”

“Madam Speaker, the target is to build as much affordable housing as possible with the capital that is being provided here by the Government of Canada. There is an array of partnerships and collaborations now. There are different levels of affordability, as the member knows as a former mayor. There are projects that have deeply affordable supportive and transitional housing. Those require more investment from government, more support in terms of an equity investment to achieve that level of affordability. There is a mix of affordable rentals in many projects as well. As for setting random large targets to shoot for, we want to see the maximum amount of housing delivered. We want to see as much affordability as possible. That is the core goal for Build Canada Homes. We want to also leverage opportunity across affordable rental housing and co-op housing. We want to see a whole range of housing in the middle market, the so-called missing middle, delivered alongside that. It is a range of different types of projects, with different affordability, but we want to see all of that maximized for the benefit of Canadians.”

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In response to a question from Mario Beaulieu

“We need this new agency to focus only on affordable housing. The existing housing agency can stick to the regular housing market and mortgage insurance. These are two different jobs, and dividing them helps us build more affordable homes with the provinces and territories.”

“Madam Speaker, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, CMHC, will continue to focus on the market side of the housing continuum, and that is from rental housing to the mortgage insurance products it has provided for generations. It can specialize in that, and Build Canada Homes can specialize in affordable housing. We think it is important to have this separation between the two. They are very different lines of business, with very different partnerships that get put together with the provinces, territories and cities on the affordable housing side. The example of Quebec’s partnership illustrates the opportunity that provinces and territories see in partnering with Build Canada Homes to get the homes delivered, and get them delivered with affordability at the core.”

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In response to a question from Dominique O'Rourke

“Non-profit groups are using this housing plan a lot. Most of the proposals come from non-profits working with private builders. Many of these projects are for supportive housing, which helps people leave homelessness. We are already working to build a couple of thousand of these homes across the country.”

“Madam Speaker, we have seen enormous uptake among the non-profit or community housing builders. I think a majority of the proposals coming into Build Canada Homes are from the community building sector and non-profits partnering with the private sector, which will do a lot of the construction and building. Those homes will be effectively operated by the non-profit sector, because they are affordable homes. In particular, I want to speak to the great uptake we have seen with transitional and supportive housing. The most important solution right now for homelessness is making sure people have access to a home that has the wraparound supports. We have a couple of thousand homes now in the works in partnership across the country for that supportive housing.”

In response to a question from Scott Aitchison

“This bill creates a new agency focused only on affordable housing. It will take over federal land to build affordable homes. Our other housing agency will keep focusing on regular market housing and loans.”

“Madam Speaker, I thank the member opposite for his questions and his concerns. Build Canada Homes will be the federal government agency to deliver affordable housing. CMHC will focus on market housing. There will be two agencies right now, CMHC on the market side and Build Canada Homes on the non-market side, that will be focused on housing. The Canada Lands Company, which has been involved in housing development for the federal government, is effectively folding into Build Canada Homes with the portfolio of federal lands where affordable housing can be built. That is one component. It is basically that we are going to two agencies. One is affordable housing-focused, non-market, and the second, CMHC, continues to provide support for market housing, the apartment construction loan program, the MLI select program and the research that the member opposite is discussing, which is valuable across the board for the whole housing continuum.”

In response to a question from Cheryl Gallant

“We are not building affordable homes fast enough. We need this new government agency to help companies and other levels of government build them faster.”

“Madam Speaker, as the member said, we are not building affordable homes fast enough. That is why we need to have Build Canada Homes as a Crown corporation, with all of the tools, financial instruments and accountability to make sure we can build faster from the federal side. We need to have these partnerships in place. We need to make it easier for the private sector to build. We need to make sure it is faster for the cities, provinces, territories and indigenous governments to get housing built. We need to be an enabler or a catalyst. We certainly rely primarily on the private sector to do the actual construction and building. All levels of government need to be coordinated to make sure it is easier and faster to get affordable housing built.”

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In response to a question from Serge Cormier

“New Brunswick is doing a great job building 1,500 homes with our new housing program. It is also leading the way in factory-built housing parts. Other provinces and territories should copy its model to build more homes in both small towns and cities.”

“Madam Speaker, we see great leadership from New Brunswick, not only with respect to the 1,500 homes that are now in the works, between Build Canada Homes and New Brunswick, but also on the manufacturing side. It is one of the leading provinces in manufacturing homes and components of buildings and homes. That is where we see the future. Certainly, New Brunswick can produce for other Atlantic provinces as well, and ship within the region, but we are seeing that opportunity with manufacturing emerging in many other parts of the country. We are also seeing opportunities, like with New Brunswick’s model, where there are a lot of smaller projects in rural communities in New Brunswick that are being coordinated by New Brunswick as a province, the housing minister and his team. That is a fantastic model for getting a lot of different types of projects, small, medium and large, built across the province. We hope to see that in many other provinces and territories.”

In response to a question from Serge Cormier

“New Brunswick is already using modern ways to build homes. Many companies there are building houses and house parts.”

“Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his leadership in New Brunswick. The province of New Brunswick certainly has been an early adopter of manufacturing and modern methods of construction. There are many companies now set up in New Brunswick producing homes or components of homes. Some hon. members: Oh, oh!”

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In response to a question from Alexis Deschênes

“Shipping materials to remote areas is expensive, and Build Canada Homes must plan for that. Shipping ready-made home parts cuts down on wasted materials that end up in landfills. We should also hire local workers to put these homes together.”

“Madam Speaker, there are challenging costs related to shipping anything to remote regions of Canada, and that is factored into the cost. Build Canada Homes has to factor that in when it is putting together these partnerships with provinces and territories, or with community builders in various regions around the country. The benefit of shipping manufactured components or volumetric homes is that is all that is being shipped: We are not shipping extra materials that are cut off and then turned into waste. Construction waste is the number one source of waste in solid waste landfills. We need to reduce the amount of waste in the industry, and we can do that with shipping. We have to factor in that cost. Ideally, we need to employ as many local people as we can for the assembly or installation of these homes.”

In response to a question from Frank Caputo

“I want the member to come talk to me in person. I am ready to work with anyone to get more housing built across Canada.”

“Madam Speaker, I would ask the member to walk across the floor. I would be happy for him to come over and talk. We are here in Ottawa all the time. If he wants to be more bureaucratic and send emails, there is that, but I am here. I am here to talk about this. We are here to get housing built. That is the goal. I have certainly been approached and had conversations with many members on both sides of the House. I am certainly willing to focus on getting housing built in all the communities across Canada.”

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In response to a question from Kevin Lamoureux

“Provinces, territories, and cities are already working with our new housing agency to build thousands of affordable homes. We have agreements across the country, and private businesses want to work with us too.”

“Madam Speaker, to the point of collaboration, we have seen fantastic uptake from provinces and territories. I mentioned Quebec moments ago and Nunavut. We have a partnership with B.C. to build 1,100 new affordable homes and 700 of those are supportive and transitional homes for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are in partnership with Build Canada Homes for more than 1,000 homes. Right out of the gate, we have agreements with provinces and territories; Yukon and Nunavut are examples, as are Ontario and Quebec. We have opportunities to build in every province and territory right now, and existing agreements are in place. That speaks to that collaboration. I think we are seeing the interest and the uptake. It is not only from different levels of government, like the City of Ottawa, but also from the private sector.”

In response to a question from Alexis Deschênes

“Building homes costs more in the north and remote areas. We are working with Quebec and Nunavut to build hundreds of homes there. We are also supporting factory-built homes to help lower those construction costs.”

“Madam Speaker, costs do vary significantly across the country, certainly in the member opposite’s riding and in the territories. The good news is that we have agreements now with Quebec to build, with Build Canada Homes, hundreds and hundreds of homes throughout Quebec in partnership with Quebec. As well, there are examples in Nunavut: 750 homes with the territorial Government of Nunavut and with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the housing corporation in Nunavut that is Inuit-controlled. We have opportunities to build with provinces and territories where the cost is significantly higher. This affords an opportunity also to empower the manufacturing industry and get components of housing or volumetric housing to those remote territories and provinces. We see manufacturers now starting to set up in many parts of Canada to bring more efficiency to the farther regions out and bring those costs down as well.”

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In response to a question from Warren Steinley

“The housing crisis has lasted for decades because past governments did not build enough affordable homes. We need federal and provincial money to build non-market housing. This bill will help us build affordable homes faster and bring in private money to help pay for them.”

“Madam Speaker, the housing crisis has been decades in the making. It goes back to the federal government not taking enough action to build affordable housing and non-market housing. It goes back at least to the nineties, and arguably before that. Governments of all stripes take responsibility; governments at all levels or orders across Canada as well. Certainly, there are challenges at the local level. I served at the local level. There are challenges in approving enough, approving fast enough and approving a balanced mix with non-market. Non-market housing needs the support of provincial and federal governments. There has to be investment in that. Build Canada Homes is an excellent vehicle to fast-track, and attract private capital to, non-market housing and the affordable housing spectrum.”

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In response to a question from Brad Redekopp

“We need to match building codes across provinces, territories, and cities. We also need clear national rules so factory-made parts, like wall panels and modular homes, can be approved and used anywhere in Canada.”

“Madam Speaker, in the spring economic update there was a signal of the opportunity to work on the national model codes, the building codes for Canada, with the National Research Council, which is under the Minister of Industry. We have big opportunities across the country to ensure that building codes are more harmonized with provinces, territories and, in some cases, cities that control their own codes. We certainly have an opportunity to have a clearer set of standards around manufactured building components and to make sure that we have those standards accepted across the country, so manufacturers of wall panels, floor panels and modular homes can have an opportunity to have those products certified and accepted across the country. We see that as an important next step that is certainly related to the work we are doing.”

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In response to a question from Scott Aitchison

“Canada is in a housing crisis. Too many people cannot find an affordable home, and some have no home at all. We need this new agency to build affordable, non-market housing.”

“Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, we are in a housing crisis in Canada. Affordability is a challenge for too many Canadians: finding an affordable place to live, finding a place to live at all for those who are at risk or are homeless currently. We need to take action here. This is a dedicated agency for affordable housing, for non-market housing, the supply of which is short in Canada compared to our peer countries in Europe, where there is several times more non-market housing. We need an agency that is dedicated to that. We are in a crisis. That is why it is urgent that we have this agency created as a Crown corporation with the powers and accountability that enables, ensuring that we are taking action and delivering results as the Government of Canada, partnering with provinces, territories, cities and indigenous governments, and ensuring that we are delivering the affordable housing Canada needs.”

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“I move that we spend no more than five more hours debating this housing bill, and then vote on it.”

“moved: That in relation to Bill C-20, an act respecting the establishment of Build Canada Homes, not more than five further hours shall be allotted to the consideration at the third reading stage of the said bill; and That, at the expiry of the five hours provided for consideration at the third reading stage of the said bill, any proceedings before the House shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this order, and in turn every question necessary for the disposal of the said stage of the bill then under consideration shall be put forthwith and successively without further debate or amendment.”