“This agency creates more government workers instead of building homes. How many homes has it actually built in the member's area?”

“Mr. Speaker, this is something the government decided to create to build more bureaucracy rather than build homes, so my question for the member opposite is really simple: How many houses has Build Canada Homes built in her riding since it was created?”

“I oppose this bill. It wastes billions of dollars on another government office that has no clear targets and will barely build any homes. To make housing affordable, the government should cut taxes for builders, remove the sales tax on new homes, and push cities to approve more building permits.”

“Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time tonight with my friend and colleague, the member for Fort McMurray—Cold Lake. It is a pleasure to rise today, as it always is, to speak on behalf of the hard-working people of Long Range Mountains on a topic that I am passionate about, and that is housing. Before entering politics, I spent almost 20 years in the real estate industry as an agent, broker and real estate coach. My husband is a builder, and my daughter is a sales agent. I have watched markets right across the country, as well as in my own province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and I intimately understand the current pressures and frustrations around housing supply and home ownership. I have watched the changes in the market, and I am extremely concerned not just for the young person looking to enter the market but also the senior looking to downsize, which would create inventory for another family. I am concerned for those who currently own homes but have dreams of building another home that suits their needs, and for move-up buyers who, again, create movement and space for others to enter the market. In today’s market, we see historically low inventory and upward pressure on pricing as a result, and little to no movement for others to enter the market. In addition, construction costs are high and markets are strained, even in areas of the country where there have typically been stable markets and a balance between supply and demand. Rural Canada is a perfect example, but now housing affordability even in these markets is being compromised. Housing affordability is a defining characteristic of rural Canada, and we cannot allow home ownership to become unaffordable, especially in these areas. The Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Realtors says it best: “Home ownership is the cornerstone of community stability, economic prosperity, and personal security. In Newfoundland and Labrador, this aspiration has long been within reach, with our province consistently reporting some of the highest rates of home ownership in Canada. It’s a reflection of our deep-rooted values: self-reliance, pride of place, and long-term investment in our families and neighbourhoods. But today, that dream is under growing threat. Challenges around housing supply, rising costs, and affordability are eroding access to ownership for many hard-working residents. If we wish to preserve this legacy and ensure future generations can share in the security and opportunity of owning a home, decisive action is needed”. However, the saddest housing statistic in this country is that the median age of first-time homebuyers in Ontario is 40 because of affordability, higher carrying costs, longer renting phases and delayed household formation. This means Canadians are not building equity around them until much later in life, and the dream of home ownership is slipping further and further away from young people. The Liberals’ response to a strained housing market is the legislation that we are discussing today, Bill C-20, but instead of a real plan to build homes, the Liberals have continued in the same direction and delivered their fourth costly Liberal housing bureaucracy, far from building at what they call generational speeds. In fact, the Liberal government’s own housing advocate stated that at the current pace of building affordable homes, it would take over 1,000 years to restore housing affordability for the poorest Canadians. Let us look closely at the facts. During the last election, the Liberal Prime Minister went across the country promising to double housing construction and deliver 500,000 new homes every single year. He promised to move at speeds we have not seen since the Second World War, yet over a year into the Liberal Prime Minister’s mandate, we see the exact opposite. There are fewer permits, fewer starts and, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, national housing starts are projected to fall as low as 212,000 per year by 2028. That is an 18.1% decline over the next two years. The CMHC explicitly stated that we need to build somewhere between 430,000 and 480,000 homes a year up to 2035 just to restore basic affordability. What about this new $13-billion Liberal Crown corporation being created under Bill C-20? The Parliamentary Budget Officer reported that the Liberals have no real plan to build the 500,000 homes they promised and will only add 5,200 homes per year. That is a mere 1% of what they promised the Canadian people. However, it gets worse. When the housing minister was asked about the metrics for the $13-billion new agency, he openly admitted, “There aren’t top-line targets set for the number of homes to build”. Mike Moffatt testified at the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, stating clearly about this piece of legislation, “[Build Canada Homes] lacks a clear goal, lacks targets and lacks key performance indicators and accountability measures. The public has not been told how many homes the program will complete, what types of homes, what the rents or prices will be, and over what time frame.” The witness went on to say, “I can’t tell you, five years from now, whether or not [Build Canada Homes] has been working, as there are no benchmarks for success. That’s a problem.” We have watched this movie before: announce billions of dollars, build a brand new taxpayer-funded bureaucracy and never set targets or deliver tangible results for the hard-working, everyday Canadians who pay the bills. Anyone in the private sector knows that if they endeavour to do a large project and do not set targets or key performance indicators, they are unequivocally setting themselves up for failure. At a critical time when we need more supply and builders are asking for less government, the Liberals are focusing on building a new bureaucracy that is simply an expensive exercise in rebranding. Just weeks ago, a report from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy showed that in the first three months of 2026, consumer insolvencies rose 8.5% compared to last year. Canadians seeking help under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act have reached levels not seen since the 2009 great recession. Today, the average Canadian owes $1.77 in debt for every dollar they earn. For the bottom 20% of earners, the very people the Liberals claim they want to help with non-market housing, that debt-to-income ratio skyrockets to an astronomical 430%. More than four in 10 Canadians are now just $200 or less away from insolvency each month. They have exhausted their savings, maxed out their credit cards and refinanced their homes just to keep up with food inflation, rising rents and soaring mortgage payments. Clearly, the plan is not working. Conservatives believe in restoring the dream of home ownership and empowering the private sector to deliver the homes Canadians need, because we know we have the workers. In Canada, we have over 131,000 people with construction experience who are currently unemployed. We have 127,000 Canadians already trained with a trade certificate or diploma who are without work. We have the skilled tradespeople, we have the lumber and we have the land. What we do not have is a plan from the federal government that will empower the private sector and let builders build, especially given that 95% of supply currently comes from market housing. Do not take it from me. A witness from the Ontario Home Builders’ Association testified, “As the industry association representing home builders...we know that builders are the experts and the ones who are best suited to construct the homes we need, not the government” and “the path forward is not for government to step into the role of the builder but for it to enable those who already do this work every day to do it better, faster and at greater scale.” Conservatives do not support adding more Liberal bureaucratic red tape to the housing sector. Builders across this country are begging for less Liberal intervention, not more. Again I will point out that 95% of housing in Canada is delivered through the private market. We need to bring prices down by increasing supply, and we do that by cutting the costs of construction. If the Liberals truly want to solve this crisis, they should stop building expensive, unaccountable bureaucracy that drives up costs and instead adopt our plan. We want to restore the dream of home ownership and empower the private sector to restore balance in the market by cutting the GST on all new homes sold under $1.3 million. This single measure would save Canadian families up to $65,000 on a new home and immediately unleash a massive wave of new residential building across the nation. Conservatives know applying this only to first-time homebuyers is not sufficient to get things moving in a way that would meaningfully make a difference. We also understand that many first-time homebuyers in many markets cannot afford to build. We also know that seniors looking to downsize in new construction could free up much-needed inventory for a growing family that needs square footage. Therefore, limiting this to first-time homebuyers is not the right approach. We would tie federal infrastructure dollars to homebuilding. When this incentive is in place, municipalities, large and small, start to develop plans for growing their communities and enabling development. A Conservative government would require major municipalities to increase the number of housing permits they issue by at least 15% each year to receive their federal funds. There is a clear difference here: a Liberal government that believes the solution to every problem is more spending, more deficits, taxes and a fourth expensive housing bureaucracy with no targets that is not delivering for Canadians; or Conservatives, who believe in the power of Canadian workers, builders and local communities. We want to empower the private sector to increase supply and restore balance by removing the taxes and lowering construction costs so our young people can afford a place to call their own. For these reasons, I cannot support Bill C-20.”

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  “Clearly, the plan is not working.”

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“I do not support this bill. We should trust private businesses to solve the housing crisis, not create another government agency. Housing experts tell us this bill is not what they need.”

“Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if there was a question in there. Conservatives believe in Canadians and in the private sector. Conservatives do not believe that we need another bureaucracy to solve the housing crisis in this country. We regularly talk to stakeholders, experts in this space, and they tell us what they need. This is not the legislation they are asking for.”

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“I want my colleague to explain why creating more government offices does not build more homes, and what is happening in her province.”

“Mr. Speaker, my colleague and good friend has a strong knowledge in this space. I was wondering if she could explain why continuing to build bureaucracy does not actually build homes, and what she sees in her home province of Newfoundland and Labrador.”

“Growing the government and spending more money causes inflation and makes building homes cost more. We should let private companies build homes instead, so costs go down and more people can afford to buy a house.”

“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, who has strong ties to Newfoundland and Labrador, for that question. When we build out government bureaucracy, we build out the size of government and we increase government spending, which drives up inflation, which drives up the cost of everything, including the cost of homebuilding. That is not the answer. We want to unleash the private sector to be able to reduce those costs, so that we can spur on home construction. This would make a meaningful difference. As I said, in rural Canada, home ownership levels are very high. They never want to talk about what the pressure is on social housing, but it is that we are driving affordability out of reach and putting more people into a situation where they cannot afford home ownership. That is what we want to correct.”

“Young people in my riding cannot afford to buy homes. I want my colleague to talk about the housing affordability problems young people face in her riding.”

“Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand on behalf of the constituents of London—Fanshawe. I go door to door and hear from them. With regard to home ownership, there are concerns that youth are affected by the affordability crisis and the lack of opportunity to afford a home. I applaud my colleague. She and her family members are experts in the real estate and homebuilding industries. I was just wondering if she could expand on that, and tell us what issues they are experiencing with regard to the affordability crisis and young people buying homes in her riding.”

“Young people suffer the most when prices go up, especially if they want to buy a home. High rent makes it too hard for them to save for a down payment and build wealth. We are failing the next generation by not taking the housing crisis seriously.”

“Mr. Speaker, when the cost of everything increases, the people who suffer the most are the young people, especially the ones who want to enter the housing market. As housing prices increase, rent prices also increase. This means that everything costs more. They cannot save for a down payment, and they feel like they are consistently on this hamster wheel. When they do not enter home ownership at a younger age, they cannot start to build assets around them. This is another reason why we are failing the next generation, by not being more serious about our approach to solve this housing crisis.”

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“We should judge our success by how many homes actually get built, not by spending announcements or more government workers.”

“Mr. Speaker, I understand the frustration. We have to measure success by results, not by funding announcements, bureaucracies or another conversation to get some more advice that does not actually lead to more homes being built.”

“I do not support this bill. Canadians cannot afford homes, and creating another government agency will not fix the problem. The government should cut taxes and red tape instead, so builders can actually build houses.”

“Mr. Speaker, owning a home was once at the heart of the Canadian dream. For generations, Canadians believed that if they worked hard, played by the rules, paid their taxes and contributed to their communities, they would have the opportunity to buy a home, raise a family and build a secure future. That was not an unreasonable expectation. It was part of the promise of this country. Today, however, that promise is further out of reach than it has ever felt before. After more than a decade of Liberal government, Canadians are facing a cost of living crisis unlike anything we have seen in generations. The cost of groceries has soared, utility bills continue to climb, families are paying more at the gas pump, more at the checkout counter and more for virtually everything, every necessity of life, yet nowhere is this failure more evident than in the housing sector. Home ownership is increasingly becoming an unachievable goal for hard-working Canadians. Young people who did everything right are losing hope. They pursued an education, entered the workforce, saved diligently and delayed major life decisions, only to discover that the dream of owning a home continues to move further and further away. The statistics paint a sobering picture. According to the office of the superintendent of bankruptcy, the number of Canadians seeking relief under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act during the first quarter of 2026 reached levels not seen since the aftermath of the Great Depression. Consumer insolvencies increased by 8.5% compared to the same period last year, and mortgage delinquencies have reached their highest levels since 2021. Canadians are carrying an astonishing $2.6 trillion in household debt, and the average Canadian now owes $1.77 for every dollar earned, yet the burden is heavier for lower- and middle-income earners. Testimony before the finance committee revealed that, for the bottom 80% of earners, debt-to-income ratios exceed 200%. For the bottom 20%, they approach 430%. These numbers are more than just statistics. They represent families draining their savings, simply trying to keep up. They represent seniors worried about their financial security. They represent young couples wondering when they will ever be able to save enough money for that down payment. They represent Canadians who have refinanced mortgages, maxed-out lines of credit and taken on additional debt simply to afford rent, groceries and other necessities. Canada is facing a housing crisis, not a housing challenge, not a housing issue, but a housing crisis, and it is a crisis that has been years in the making. I have seen the aftermath of this crisis in my hometown of Fort McMurray, where we have had booms and busts for as long as people have known that the oil sands existed. However, never was this more true than in the last decade when we had the Liberal government in place, which told people in my community that it would transition their jobs away, and that they should not actually be in that kind of industry. What we saw, effectively for the last 10 years, were housing starts dropping to nearly zero, which means that, right now, we do not have the builders ready to build, because most of the builders have left town. Most of the construction workers have left town, because there were no jobs to be had as people were not buying houses. What we saw, and what we are continuing to see, are people upside down on their mortgage, which means they owe more than they have paid. If they want to sell their house, their choice is either to pay a whole bunch of money or go bankrupt. That is not a space where Canadians want to be, but this is where we are careening down, because of the Liberals’ mismanagement of the economy for the last decade. The decisions the Liberals make, and the decisions we make here in Parliament, have real-life impact on the lives of Canadians. This is not just a crisis for families who are looking to buy homes. It is a crisis for workers who build homes: electricians, carpenters, plumbers and welders. It has an impact on all kinds of construction workers. When projects are delayed by government red tape or permits take years instead of months, investment goes away. This is one of those problems, because when the investment goes away, the jobs disappear. We need to think about that for a moment. Canada has a severe housing crisis and a severe housing shortage. We need millions of new homes across the country. We have skilled trades workers ready to build them, yet government policies are slowing down construction and preventing projects from even getting off the ground. Every housing project that is cancelled, delayed or deemed too expensive to proceed means fewer houses for workers to work on, fewer apprentices getting trained, fewer opportunities for young people entering the trades and fewer paycheques for hard-working Canadians. This is the reality that the Liberal government fails to understand. What is the Liberals’ solution? Their solution is yet another housing bureaucracy. What we are seeing with Build Canada Homes is a fourth Canadian housing bureaucracy because their solution to so much is just to build more government bureaucracy. The reality is we have yet to be able to understand, on the human resources, skills and social development committee, what powers of the Build Canada Homes could not be accessed through either the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation or the Canada Lands Company, which are two existing bureaucracies. Instead, the Liberals want to put a new shiny bow on things, build something new and say they are going to build at unimaginable speeds, yet the reality is we are seeing construction grind to a halt. Most of the people who came before our committee when we studied this bill did not really understand what Build Canada Homes was going to do. They had some general ideas, but nothing concrete. When we had the CEO come to committee, we heard how many homes the corporation had built. The answer, I think, was nine, which is not speeds that had never before been seen. The Liberals promised to build 500,000 homes annually, yet according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation projections, housing starts could actually fall to approximately 212,000 units by 2028. That is not just a small shortfall. That is a huge failure of historic proportions. Even more concerning is the Parliamentary Budget Officer found that Build Canada Homes would contribute only about 5,000 homes annually. That is only 1% of the government’s own annual housing target. Canadians deserve better than announcements that generate headlines but fail to deliver results. The reality is builders have consistently told government what is needed. The solution is not more bureaucracy. The solution is not more government agencies. The solution is not having Ottawa involved. The solution is not having Ottawa attempting to become a developer. The solution is creating conditions that allow builders to build. The CEO of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association summed it up perfectly when he testified at our committee. He said, “the path forward is not for government to step into the role of the builder but for it to enable those who already do this work every day to do it better, faster and at greater scale.” The Conservative Party of Canada completely agrees and we believe that all Canadians should have the opportunity to own their own home and have access to safe and affordable housing. That is why Conservatives believe that the federal government can assist home builders across the country by cutting the GST on all new homes under $1.3 million, saving families up to $65,000; unleash building by tying federal infrastructure dollars to homebuilding; have municipalities permit at least 15% more homebuilding each year; cut development charges by 50%, which the Liberals promised during the last election campaign but refused to deliver; end the capital gains on reinvestment in new housing in Canada; and unlock billions of dollars of investment in the country’s homebuilding sector. Most importantly, we believe the government should focus on the outcomes instead of announcements. I know that is shocking, but Canadians do not measure success by the number of government programs that exist. They measure success by whether they can afford a home. They measure success by whether their children have opportunities. They measure success by whether their communities can grow and prosper. For too many Canadians, the answer today is no. The consequences of inaction are profound. Canadians are tired of excuses. They are tired of missed targets. They are tired of announcements that never materialize into results. They want action. They want homes. They want affordability. They want governments that remove obstacles instead of creating them. As the member of Parliament for Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, I will continue fighting for the workers, the families, the tradespeople and the young Canadians who simply want a fair chance to succeed, to save, to buy a home, to build a future and to pass on something to their children. This was once the Canadian promise and it should be again. It is time to restore Canada’s promise.”

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  “After more than a decade of Liberal government.”

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“Canadians want to own their own homes. The government has created too many housing agencies. This new agency will only build 5,000 homes a year, which is far less than what the government promised.”

“Mr. Speaker, I know the member opposite can get all huffy and puffy, and have all the passion in the world for this, but it does not change the result that over 80% of Canadians want to own a home. They want to own their own house. The government has created yet another housing bureaucracy, so we are now up to four housing bureaucracies at the federal level in Canada. The government’s own Parliamentary Budget Officer has even said that Build Canada Homes will add just 5,000 homes per year, which is 1% of what the Liberals promised. I do not think that meets the expectation of Canadians. I wonder if he does.”

“I do not support this bill. It just adds more government bureaucracy instead of using the agencies we already have. Ottawa should work with the provinces, territories, and Indigenous governments instead.”

“Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, with whom I have the honour of serving on the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, as well as on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. The facts are crystal clear. We heard from so many witnesses during the committee’s study of Bill C‑20. The witnesses said that there was a lot of uncertainty and that they were not getting answers about the point of all this or why it could not be done by existing agencies. Ottawa decided to create another structure, to add more bureaucracy. It is not going to work. The fact is that we need to work more closely with the provinces, the territories and indigenous governments across the country because what Ottawa is doing is not working.”

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“I oppose this bill. Housing is too expensive, and creating another government office will not help build homes. Other government housing programs have already failed to give money to the communities in my riding.”

“Mr. Speaker, housing is so important right now in Canada. We cannot waste the moment by building more bureaucracy, more talking and not doing. For example, Build Canada Homes is another bureaucracy. In Penticton, housing is getting so expensive. In Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, multiple communities in my huge riding have applied for the housing accelerator fund in the last few years. Not one of them has gotten it. Why would we build another bureaucracy when that is not working?”