QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Cost of Living
December 12, 2023
Government leader, on Monday, a national report on rent showed that even renting with a roommate is unaffordable in Canada. In British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, the average cost of renting with a roommate has gone up over 16% in just one year, to a record high of $960. With respect to my province, the report stated:
Average asking rents for shared accommodations increased 13.0% annually and remained highest in B.C. at $1,121, including an average rent of $1,442 for shared units in Vancouver. . . .
Leader, that’s almost $400 more than it cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver in 2015, before the Trudeau government was elected.
Does your government take any responsibility for making rent unaffordable for Canadians?
What the government takes responsibility for is helping Canadians as they navigate the rising costs of living, including housing. In that regard, the government is taking unprecedented action to drive down the cost of rent by getting more apartments built faster and unlocking investment properties for Canadians to live in.
This fall alone, the government has delivered measures that will unlock well over 600,000 new rental homes, including tens of thousands of affordable homes across the country. As I’ve said before on many occasions — and this should, I would have thought, appeal to a party that values, as one should, the contributions the private sector can make — we are working in partnership with the private sector and with governments at all levels in order to all do our part within our jurisdictions to help Canadians weather this housing crisis.
That’s exactly the problem, leader. I’ve raised with you the issue of the massive debt between the number of houses your government says it will provide and the amount CMHC says we need in order to restore affordability. Last week, the President of CMHC told the Senate’s National Finance Committee that there was still no overall plan to overcome this gap. It’s still in development.
Leader, why does your government continue to be so slow in dealing with the housing crisis?
The government is taking measures in an appropriate and responsible way. It is not the position of this government that it is simply going to take a top-down-status approach, taking over jurisdiction from both the private sector and the provinces. It is working in partnership. It is doing its part and will continue to do so.
