Canadians have been struggling for decades with a housing affordability crisis. With the rapidly rising cost of living in addition to the housing crisis, Canadians are struggling harder than ever.
To address the root cause of the affordability crisis, the government must prioritize people over the profits of corporations, oil and gas, and the ultra-wealthy. By closing tax loopholes, tax havens, and stopping tax-payer funded subsidies to oil and gas industries and corporations, we will be able to make the investments that will improve affordability and enhance the well-being of Canadians, such as affordable housing, universal dental and pharmacare, public education, a just transition to a green economy, and Guaranteed Livable Basic income.
The pandemic has shown us that the government can respond rapidly to a crisis if there is the political will. The CERB and CRB showed that the minimum wage for survival is $2000, yet the incomes of seniors and people on disability fail to reach that. The NDP has introduced a private member's bill to develop a national framework for a permanent Guaranteed Livable Basic Income (GLBI) in Canada with reporting requirements. The bill proposes a GLBI for all people living in Canada over the age of 17 regardless of participation in the workforce or an educational training program.
I will keep fighting for real policies that will make sure that the rich pay their fair share and that all Canadians can live in dignity and security.
HESA#38: Committee debate on Bill C-31 Cost of Living Relief Act, An Act respecting cost of living relief measures related to dental care and rental housing
In a different committee.... I don't normally sit on this committee, so I'm a bit bewildered as to how this committee normally works. I don't know if this is how it always works. In any event, this is my first time sitting on this committee. In the committee I sit on, which is the immigration committee, there have been many times when the Conservative members challenged the chair. Sometimes they succeeded and sometimes they didn't.
All of that is to say that it is within members' rights to do what they wish to do and then follow the procedures accordingly. Nobody is usurping the rules here. We are following the rules as they are.
Getting back to the issue at hand, the purpose of this amendment is.... In my community of Vancouver East, for example, there are a lot of people who pay room and board. Sometimes they're students. Sometimes they're seniors. Sometimes the amount they pay is not the 25% that is deemed in this legislation. What I intended to do was come up with a number that better reflects the actuality of how much they pay, so that more people would qualify. I will admit that I am trying to get more people to qualify. That is my sin here. I am trying to do that.
If the Conservatives don't like that and don't support it, which is exactly where they are, they're entitled to that and to vote against it, accordingly. However, to somehow suggest that I'm trying to usurp the rules, Mr. Chair, is offensive and it is just not true.