Mr. Speaker, the housing minister claims to have the most robust housing agenda in the history of the House, but Canadians have heard this story before. The man making that claim was also the mayor of Vancouver during one of the most disgraceful chapters in Canadian housing history. Under his watch, Vancouver became a global hot spot for money laundering, shady real estate deals and housing speculation. Drug cartel money flowed freely through casinos and into luxury condos. Homes were not being built for families. They were being used as safe deposit boxes for dirty money. Where was he? He was not taking action. He was not standing up for working Canadians. He turned a blind eye.
When researchers exposed what was happening, when members of Vancouver's own Chinese community raised the alarm, he did not listen. He dismissed the findings. He smeared the critics. He chose to protect the developers, the insiders and the money men. He let the crisis grow, and hard-working families paid the price. That is not just failure; that is a complete lack of integrity.
Now that same man wants us to trust him to solve Canada's housing crisis. He is not a man who builds trust. He is a man who abandons it and the people who depend on it every time. Not only that, but the Liberal programs that the minister now defends simply do not work. They do not look good on paper, and they certainly do not work in practice. Just ask the families trying to get their first home. Ask the single moms stuck in rentals that drain every last dime.
Those programs did not even base affordable housing on what people actually earn. Instead, they used market rents during a housing crisis, which was sky-high, and just knocked off a few dollars. This means that in Vancouver or Toronto, if the market rent is, say, $3,000, they would call $2,400 affordable. However, for the people who actually need help, that is not affordable at all. It is not affordable for low-income seniors, not for young families trying to start out and not for immigrants working two jobs to make ends meet. Calling something affordable does not make it true.
The minister knows full well that these programs do not create truly affordable housing. He is a clever man and a wealthy man. He owns multiple properties. Would he ever build housing based on what low-income Canadians can actually afford? Of course not, he would not make the big returns. That is the real issue here. These programs are not built to fix the problem. They are built to protect the insiders, to keep the system working for people like him while everyone else is left behind: the single moms, the seniors and the working-class Canadians who just want a fair shot and get nothing. Forgive us, Mr. Speaker, if we do not believe him, because this is not about slogans. It is about people, real people who have been failed again and again by those who are supposed to lead.
The minister can stand up and repeat his talking points all he wants, but Canadians have lived through the reality. They see the truth clearly now. The few homes being built are not truly affordable. The numbers do not match the promises. Most importantly, the trust that Canadians once had in their leaders is gone. This is not going to be the most robust housing agenda in Canadian history. It is going to be more smoke and mirrors. The government has failed to build homes and failed to protect the people who need them most.
This former mayor failed Vancouver. He turned a blind eye while a housing crisis exploded and working families were pushed out. There is no reason to believe he will do any better on a national scale. In fact, there is every reason to believe it will be far worse under his direction. If he could not fix the housing crisis for one city, why on earth would Canadians trust him with the entire country?