Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank the member for Winnipeg Centre for her remarks and for sharing her experiences every time she rises to speak in the House. I think we should all pay attention to the hon. member's remarks and her lived experience. We all have our lived experience in life, some different from others, but it is always important to be respectful to individuals

I will be splitting my time with my hon. colleague and friend, the member for London North Centre, from the beautiful city of London, Ontario, which I have had the pleasure to visit and where we had one of our caucuses two years ago.

Tonight, we are speaking about the report, “The Effects of the Housing Shortage on Indigenous Peoples in Canada”. Obviously, we know how important housing is and having a roof over one's head here in this country that we live in. Frankly, all over the world, we are grappling with housing issues, but more so for indigenous communities here at home. We need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to assist all folks here in Canada and to build this nation-to-nation relationship.

We wish to thank the Auditor General for her work and welcome the important recommendations in the report. Of course, as a government, we accept and will implement every recommendation that has been made by the Auditor General. As we all know, decades of underinvestment, discrimination and racism has led to a tremendous lack of safe, affordable housing and housing supports for indigenous peoples. We, as a government, have been taking action and will continue to take action to support indigenous peoples no matter where they live.

Since 2016, we have increased funding for on-reserve housing by 1,100%. We supported the construction, renovation and retrofit of over 34,000 homes in first nations communities. We are also working with first nations partners to co-develop a 10-year housing infrastructure strategy. If my memory serves me correctly, I think it was in one of the last two budgets that we committed, I believe, $4 billion to indigenous housing and the northern strategy on housing, which is very important.

All levels of government have a role to play to solve this crisis and create tangible, lasting, indigenous-led solutions to address these housing gaps. It is so important that we do so. One of the things that I think differentiates parties and their philosophical views in terms of how we approach and collaborate with different levels of government is that, on our side of the House, we wish to work and will continue to work with municipalities. In the area I live in, there is the City of Vaughan, the Region of York, the Province of Ontario and the federal government. We will continue to respect the jurisdictions within that space.

As members know, cities in Canada, under the Constitution, are called “creatures of the province”. We can work directly with them at the federal level, but we should always respect them and collaborate, as we have with the housing accelerator fund. In the city of the Vaughan, for example, we made an investment of $59 million in the housing accelerator fund. One of the tranches of that housing accelerator fund in the city of Vaughan has been put to use in an infrastructure investment that will allow the acceleration, I believe, of 3,300 homes in the city of Vaughan to be built quicker and on schedule.

As I am speaking about the city I live in, and as one of the members of Parliament there, I respect greatly all of the City of Vaughan's employees, from the planning department to bylaw, to parks, to animal control. Everyone who works at the City of Vaughan, all of the municipal employees there, do a fantastic job. In no way are council members or the planning department gatekeepers. They work hard. They issue permits, and it is up to the builders to build the houses afterwards. However, they issue their permits, and that is something I am very proud of. I want to give a shout-out to them, because not all political leaders respect our municipal politicians, at whatever level of government they may be at, and that is a shame.

Again, with respect to the City of Vaughan council, mayor and all the employees of the City of Vaughan, I have their backs. I know the hard work they do. I wish to say thank you and I hope the other MPs who represent the City of Vaughan would admonish the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada for taking direct shots at our mayors, at the local councillors and at the folks who work in the planning departments with urban planning degrees.

In both indigenous and non-indigenous communities in this beautiful country, before people can build a house, they need to have sewer, they need to have pipes and they need to have the infrastructure put in place. That requires planning. It does not just happen overnight. It requires collaboration.

We have been there for cities across this country. When it comes to continuing to invest in indigenous peoples, we will take no lessons, absolutely none, from the Conservative Party of Canada and its leader, who we know in the past has made disparaging remarks. That is on the record and a fact. When the Leader of the Opposition was responsible for housing, his $300-million boondoggle program only managed to get 99 homes built in first nations communities. During marathon votes, Conservatives voted against funding for housing projects for first nations, Inuit and Métis.

We know one of the Conservatives' promises is to reduce the GST on new builds. This is approximately $4.5 billion to $5 billion of a promise of expenditure. They promised to increase pensions for seniors from 65 to 74. That is another $4-billion promise. As such, on both sides, there would be a $9-billion spend. Whether it is reducing taxes on one or increasing spending on the other, there is a $9-billion promise that has not been accounted for.

In order to do that, we would have to eliminate a couple of different programs, like the national early learning and child care program or the Canadian dental care plan, which now has three million Canadians covered, including nearly 25,000 in the riding I represent. We cannot cut CBSA officers again, like the Conservatives did in the prior government, and then say our borders are secure having made these devastating cuts, which we have had to rebuild. The Conservative plan is to make cuts and these cuts would have real-life impacts on indigenous communities, and we cannot go back to the years of shortchanging indigenous communities.

We will continue as a government to support projects that support first nations' leading the path forward. In my last two minutes, I will give a few examples of indigenous-led housing projects. The Daylu Dena Council constructed a new six-plex for the elderly and people with reduced mobility to continue living in their home community. Council members designed the building with the community's northern climate in mind and used green standards to ensure energy efficiency.

The Mistawasis Nêhiyawak in Saskatchewan, to reduce overcrowding, constructed three new duplexes in the community and renovated 10 existing homes to increase their lifespan and address health and safety concerns caused by overcrowding.

The Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick and the Government of Canada have worked to strengthen the governance structure of Tobique's housing program to help develop a healthier and sustainable indigenous community. The program included the construction of a triplex housing unit, additions to four units and a capacity development project.

On shelter supports, since 2021 we have provided ongoing support for 38 emergency shelters and 50 transition homes for first nations, Inuit, Métis and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people in urban, rural and northern communities.

In my last minute, because I know in a few days we will break for the Christmas holidays, I want to wish all residents a merry Christmas and all members of the House, independent of which side of the aisle and which party they represent, a merry Christmas and to all their families all the best, a safe and peaceful holiday season, and all the best for the New Year. I say that sincerely.

I would like to tell my daughters that I love them very much, and I will see them later this week. To my wife, I thank her for always supporting me in this endeavour, which I know is taxing on all of our families.

Francesco Sorbara

$564,741.00