Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House to discuss the motion we are moving today to call on the government to make renting more affordable and make access to first-time home ownership easier. This is something that the government does not seem to be too concerned about. Who pays the price at the end of the day? It is Canadians yet again.

After eight years of this Prime Minister, things are not looking very rosy for Canada. We are experiencing the worst inflation in 40 years. Grocery prices are spiking, and so is the cost of housing and homes. Canadians are struggling to make ends meet. They have to choose between food, clothing and shelter. Workers are bringing home a paycheque that is worth less because everything goes to taxes. With the little that is left, they have to pay for groceries that keep going up in price. They have to pay for their car, and gas prices keep climbing. They have to pay for clothing and housing as well. It should come as no surprise that people are at the end of their rope.

I want to remind the House what constitute basic needs: food, clothing and shelter. Having a roof over one's head should not be a luxury. It is a basic and fundamental need. In an industrialized country like ours, no one should have to worry about not having access to affordable housing or a home. It is unacceptable and inconceivable that people have to sleep in their parents' basement because they have no money.

We are talking about hard-working, dedicated people who have done everything they have been told to do, but still find themselves having to live with their parents because mortgages and housing prices have skyrocketed under this Prime Minister. In fact, mortgage and rent prices have doubled since this Prime Minister has been in office.

When the Liberals took office, the average monthly payment for a new home was $1,400. Today, it is over $3,000. Renting is no better. In 2015, the average rent in Canada for a one-bedroom apartment was $973. Today, the average price is $1,760. Finding a place to live in Canada has become very difficult for both renters and owners.

Canadians can simply no longer afford to keep this Prime Minister with his inflationary spending in office. The Prime Minister does not like taking responsibility. We have seen that in the past. This is not the first time he has blamed everyone else for his incompetence and bad policies, as well as his bad decisions. Sometimes we wonder what the Prime Minister's real role is because, to hear him speak, he controls very little in this country.

That is the case with the current housing crisis. He blames the rising rents on a global phenomenon, but it is not true. Statistics show the opposite. The vast majority of countries do not have a housing crisis like we do in Canada. The average house in Canada now costs twice as much as in the United States. How can that be? Despite having a population 10 times that of Canada and less land, the United States does not have the same housing crisis as Canada.

Let us compare Toronto and Vancouver. We have always known that rent is expensive in those two major cities. That is not new, except that the situation is going from bad to worse. In a new ranking of the most unaffordable cities in the world, Vancouver is third and Toronto is 10th. New York and London are ranked lower. That is incredible.

Once again, the Liberals refuse to take responsibility for the current housing crisis in Canada. We are in a real crisis. Nine out of 10 Canadians have given up on the idea of buying their first home. We are talking about an entire generation that cannot imagine being able to buy a home to raise a family, all because of this government's inflationary spending and taxing.

Years of bad policies have left us with a housing shortage. We have land to build housing, but it is taking too long to get the buildings built. The Liberals have pumped billions of dollars in federal subsidies into the big cities, but this has not resulted in more new builds or enough affordable housing. It appears to be a pattern with these Liberals. They turn on the money tap, but nothing gets any better. In fact, the financial situation of Canadians is getting worse.

Another point that I would like to make involves the down payment needed to buy a property. As members know, it was already taking people many months or even years to save up for the dreaded down payment. After eight years under a Liberal government, that down payment has doubled. The minimum down payment for an average house in Canada went from $22,000 to $45,000. The cost of housing has doubled, so of course the down payment has also doubled.

In short, Canadians have less money in their pockets to meet their basic needs. They do not have any wiggle room, but now they have to save twice as much for a down payment. That clearly does not make any sense.

When I talk about affordable housing, I think about a woman in my riding named Martine. She came to see me last week. Martine works as a cashier in a pharmacy. She lives in a decent home with her 12-year-old daughter. She has always lived modestly, but she and her daughter have always had everything they needed. Now, with inflation, that is no longer the case. She came to see me in tears saying that she could no longer make ends meet. Groceries and gas cost too much, and her rent just went up. Because she is unable to afford her rent, she is going to have to move into subsidized housing if she meets the criteria, but even that will be difficult because of a lack of availability.

I hear stories like Martine's every week. I see my constituents going into debt to cover their basic needs while the Liberals are off spending taxpayers' money. Go tell Martine, who has to choose between food and clothing, that her money is being thrown out the window, that the Liberals are spending to excess without even making Canadians' lives better.

This opposition day allows me to highlight a real problem in this country. The housing shortage and every problem that stems from it deserves a day of debate, a day of sharing ideas to force the Liberals to change their policies, which are not helping Canadians in any way whatsoever. After eight years, it is obvious.

This day also allows us to give Canadians a sense of what Canada would look like under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition. A Conservative government will bring back common sense, in other words, homes and housing that Canadians can afford, by removing the gatekeepers to free up land and speed up building permits. We will stop the flow of infrastructure funding to municipalities that block new home construction, and we will give construction bonuses to cities that quickly give the green light to builders so that they can provide affordable housing. It is time Canadians got to enjoy a standard of living befitting a country such as ours. It is common sense.

Richard Martel

$436,858.00