Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government is decimating Canada's middle class. I would like to share the story of a resident in Durham region to help illustrate exactly how Liberal policies are hurting our communities.

I met a man who has experienced what one might call invisible homelessness. Many people know him but did not know that he did not have a place to live. He was living with his mother, and their incomes together allowed them to be able to afford rent. When his mother had to be put in a long-term care facility, his income alone was no longer able to keep a roof over his head. He wound up moving into his car and sleeping in the parking lot of the ONroute in Newcastle, Ontario, in Durham region.

When I met him, he explained to me that he had done everything society had asked him to do. He went to school, got a job, worked hard and paid his taxes, yet when the time came when his family faced a crisis and an emergency, Liberal policies were not there for him. Liberal policies have let him and his family down.

The problem in our country right now, or one problem of many, is that more and more Canadians are in precarious situations, where one bit of bad luck, one person getting sick, or one issue hitting a family, sideswiping people unexpectedly, can put them in a situation of great desperation. Housing is a key fundamental aspect of this, of course.

A recent survey from Habitat for Humanity showed that 82% of Canadians worry that the housing crisis is impacting our overall health and well-being, and 78% believe that the inability to own a home is contributing to the wealth gap in Canada. The numbers get even worse when we look at younger generations of Canadians, who have family members, friends and neighbours going through precarious situations. Then they see a government continuing to do photo op after photo op, advertising policies and programs that are supposedly able to fix the issues, but the government is instead entirely tone-deaf and unresponsive.

The numbers, again, speak for themselves. Let us look at what has been announced by the Liberal government and its buddies in the NDP. Let us look at Toronto, with $471 million announced for a housing photo op fund, and home building starts down 20%. In Vancouver, the NDP-Liberal photo op fund is $115 million, and the result is that home building starts are down 19%. In Kingston, the NDP-Liberal photo op fund is $27.6 million, but home building starts are down 67%. The NDP-Liberal photo op fund in Guelph is $21.4 million, with home building starts down 65%.

The government in this country has abdicated any responsibility for middle-class families and instead wants to tell people over and over again that it is doing this and that, and that it is trying to solve the problems. It is spending more tax dollars, yet the result is more people struggling, more people worried they may never afford a home, and more people raising children who believe that home ownership is now only for those who are the wealthiest, that it is now a luxury. This is opposed to a time, not very long ago, when home ownership was a defined part of the Canadian dream.

I am trying my best to channel the frustrations and concerns of many of my constituents across Durham region who believe, fundamentally, that they are not the priority of the Liberal government. More numbers come out that affirm that Canadians are pessimistic about the government's ability to solve any of the serious problems in our country, to look out for the best interests of middle-class families and to address the very real crisis of our country's housing shortage.

Jamil Jivani

Transcript

Routine Proceedings

Discussions (0)