CPAC - Friday, May 24, 2024 - 10:00 a.m. (ET) - Segment #16

we are doing what we can to change the math for builders, to incentivize chases at other levels of government, to get back -- changes -- into affordable housing and measures for me to have credibility in these conversations. When there are areas that are clearly not within our jurisdiction, we want to create incentives to see the kind of changes that will be adopted at different levels of government. It's housing accelerator fund is a great example where we're not saying, cities, you must do this. Because we don't have the authority. But if we mutt on the table and say we think this will change the -- put money on the table and say we think this will change the situation for you, opportunities for families and services, we can create an incentive that will inspire communities to change it's way that homes are built to make it easier. >> Answer: so it's through a mix -- so it's through a mix of conversations, incentives, and exercising our own jurisdiction where appropriate that I think we can achieve these kinds of changes. But I do think we'll find good partners in every province on a range of issues, and where we disagree we'll still do our best to find ways to achieve progress. >> Okay. Because progress is what the 76% of canadians who are worried about buying a home want. I'll take a look at slago -- thank you very much for putting it there -- taking a look at a slide -- I couldn't quite see it over here. I could ask you to pick one from the randomizer if you'd like to answer one, but how can we bam building homes for canadians while improving living standards and wages? -- balance building. >> I want to understand. This I don't think those are contrary to one another. I actually think as we build more homes we're going to improve living standards and wages. If we build more homes, when you look at the dynamics between supply and demand, if you secure the supply gap you'll put downward pressure on prices that help the standards that canadians enjoy and you'll create good-paying jobs which could elevate the wages. Now, thankfully we are starting to see wage growth in canada outpace inflation over the last couple of months, which is a positive shift after what we saw on the heels of the pandemic from time to time my perspective I actually think one will help lead to the other and prevent the inflation that we've seen on the price of a place to live from eating away at very real wage gains that people are starting to experience now. >> One of the things that minister calandra announced yesterday in the ontario housing update was that they were going to exempt publicly assisted colleges from the planning act to allow them to be able to build a little bit better. On the federal government side, do you see a role to directly help universities in terms of building student housing? >> Absolutely. We made a really big change recently to the apartment construction loan programme. So that's a programme that we created with the purpose of incentivizing apartment construction at scale by putting -- passing on the low rate of borrowing the federal government benefits from to those who are building apartments. Previously student housing wasn't eligible. And we made that change because this could actually contribute a major solution. It's cheaper to build on a per-unit basis student housing than other kinds of housing, but when somebody doesn't have to compete in the same market in the community because there was a home for them on or near campus, you actually can achieve more with the same level of investment. So we do insist that we get something back in return for passing on that low rate of interest. We demand that people who take part in the programme make a certain number of the units available at a price level that reflects the median wage in a given community. With student housing it's actually fairly easy to do because rents are typically much lower. This is a tool we have already made the change on that we expect will help scale up home building at colleges and universities and help provide a solution in the markets in which those campuses are located. >> You've had four days of announcements, tenants and renters, accelerator fund, the canada housing fund, transit funding, the list goes on, and I know you'll be spending the next couple months talking about it. But is there anything left in the budget? >> Uh, yeah, actually, look, I'll share some news with you now. >> Oh! Exclusive! Fantastic! I need my pen! >> Tomorrow we're actually going to be releasing our plan to solve the housing crisis in canada. It's going to involve a series of measures that are going to do some of the things we've talked about. When it comes to reducing the cost of home building, we've already removed the gst. There will be more measures that make it more cost effective for builders. We're going to include some of the measures we've recently announced to help cities change the way they build homes around infrastructure, around the housing accelerator fund. There's going to be supports as we mentioned for home building manufacturers, help with the affordable housing stock in this country and help communities that are wrestling with challenges around homelessness and encampments and we're also going to have additional measures, including some that will be shared later today,

designed to make it easier for people to get into the housing market for the first time. So there is more to come, significant new measures. You only have to wait about 24 hours. >> Well, how long do I have to wait to find out if my taxes are going up? [ Laughter ] >> Look, minister freeland is going to be releasing the budget next week. The fiscal projections -- >> But these are things you're happy to talk about. The bad stuff you have to wait a bit. >> We owe it to canadians to be transparent in our budget process to demonstrate what we're spending money on and where the money is coming from time to time the budget is going to maintain a fiscal tract that we believe is responsible, that's going to be focused on not driving inflation at the same time that we can increase productivity and meet some of the demands. The good news when it comes to investments in housing, and don't trust me. Take the governor of the bank of canada's words in this regard, investments in housing giving the supply shortage can actual have a disinflationary impact because when you cure the supply gap, you can actually reduce the cost pressures overall. So it's about making the right kind of investments with the money that we do spend through the federal budget process. But it will include a full and transparent accounting in the budget process, of course. >> As you will. You have a lot of focus on stock, building new stock. One of the first things you said when you became minister, and I told you your quote back stage, was you know the problem is we have to build more stock. What the cibc poll also says is that people are really struggling with down payment. Trying to figure out how to cobble it together. Just to let you know, it was 55% of canadians feel they have to rely on an inheritance or gift from their family in order to afford a down payment. Are there any tax credits that you're thinking of for these kinds, wait a minute? >> There's some measures we put in place already, and there's more that we'll be sharing in the next day. So one of the things that I take a little bit of comfort in is we made a shift in the incentive that we created to help people save up for their first down payment. And it's not fair that someone's access to the housing market depends on how much money their parents earn. That's not what canada is built upon. It's not the ideals that we hold. People should have a fair shot at getting into the housing market if that's what they want. The first home savings account is a policy that allows you to save money tax-free in, tax-free out, the kind that takes advantage of both the rrsp and tfsa model for people trying to buy their first home. What we've seen since the introduction of that policy is about 750,000 people now signed up. Varying amounts of savings are put into the accounts for each person. But what it communicates to me is there is a believe amongst at least that many young people in canada that -- a belief -- that they will be able to get into the housing markets and they're actively taking steps to own a home you no. There are other things we're looking at to make it easier -- now -- for people to save up the down payment. Other things we've announced already for renters who want to make the transition, but the bottleneck for them is the credit score in addition to the down payment to help their rent count for something. But there's other things we will do to try to reduce what the monthly payment looks like to get more people into the housing market as well. $2 I know housing is the first term in your -- >> I know housing is the first term in your title. You're housing, infrastructure, and communities now sing how it's titled -- is how it -- but trade infrastructure is really important to the long-term economic growth of the country. Are you focusing too much on housing, minister? >> One of the things that people don't appreciate because the public focus has been on housing is I've not lost sight of the fact I'm also the infrastructure minister. We are working to roll out a series of different policies. They are inex-trimically linked with certain kinds of infrastructure -- inextricably -- we want to build complete communities where people can thrive. That demands we make investments in water and waste water infrastructure so housing can be built and when you turn the tap on water comes out. It also demands that we invest in recreational facilities, community assets that make a place worth calling home. It also demands that we'll go out transit infrastructure. We hope to reach agreements with metro regions as soon as this year to fund for the long term expansions of transit that will allow people to access the services and opportunities that their cities and communities provide, but we also have to look -- and this is where we get into one of your former portfolios around transportation, how we can actually invest in the kind of infrastructure that will create trade opportunities, that will drive productivity and growth for the next generation. We come from the east coast. Enormous opportunities when I see the global shipping patterns shift as the manufacturing base moves from china to south asia, southeast asia, suddenly the east coast of canada becomes a more competitive transportation environment that could drive growth opportunities for our part of the world. There's unique opportunities that I see along those lines, both for people who are going to use our airports thoroughfares to do business in north america

OR PEOPLE WHO ARE GOINTO BE SHIPPING GOODS. SO THERE'S ENORMOUS OPPORTUNITIES IF WE INVEST IN OUR AIRPORTS, INVEST IN OUR PORT INFRASTRUCTURE, INVEST IN OUR TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS ACROSS THE CONTINENT TO POSITION CANADA FOR ENORMOUS SUCCESS. AND I JUST SEE ENORMOUS POTENTIAL, BUT A BIG PART WE NEED TO SOLVE IS TO MAKE SURE THE WORKERS HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE IF THEY'RE GOING TO BE CONTRIBUTING TO THE ECONOMY. I DIDN'T AND THAT'S A GREAT PLACE TO. >> AND THAT'S A GREAT PLACE TO END IT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MINISTER SEAN FRASER. >> THANK YOU SO MUCH. [ Applause ] [ ] ic playilaying] [Music playing] On the nhe next Profile, Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor. Has there been any one experience, any one story that resonates,and you remember the most? All of my experiences that I've had with these types of delegations have left me just a different person. I return to Canada and justappreciate that much more, the freedoms that we have today. And thanking these great Canadians is the least that we can do. [announcer] Profile with Michael Serapio. See it on CPAC. he next ext Outburst, should AI be included as an educational tool in schools? Under some circumstances, yes. You're going to have to be able to disclose how much of your thesis was produced by AI. [Glen] Outburst. See it on CPAC. [vover] CP] CPAC presents "Wings of Honour", a Canadian Geographic Films documentary celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. One out of every five aces in World War II from all the countries was a Canadian. I always figured the ones that never came home were the heroes. [voiceover] Featuringrarely seen archival footage and the compelling stories ofpast and present RCAF members from across Canada. You are being asked to do something, on behalf of the other 35million or 40 million people, that is very difficult andhas extremely high stakes. [voiceover] Learn how Canada's Air Force shaped history. My first trip into enemy territory left me like a man standing outside naked. I am just astounded at these young men, what they did. It's been an incredible amountof work to get to this point, more than I could have imagined. [voiceover] "Wings of Honour", an exclusive documentary premiere. See it on CPAC. [dynamic music playing] [music playing] [music playing] Recognizing how you've laid outthe case for body scan searches and how they're a viablealternative, in the case of women, I'm also wondering,is there a possibility for this bill down the line? Is this considered partof an incremental change towards the abolition of stripsearches for all genders? Or-- I was just wondering abouta bit more clarity on that. [Asha] Hello. My name is Asha Mior,and I'm from Vancouver, British Columbia. I saw Model Senate asan amazing opportunity to of build my skills relatedto diplomacy and policy making, and to just gaina general better understanding of how ourparliamentary processes work in Canada. Interacting with the otherstudents here at model Senate has been one ofthe absolute highlights of this weekend,and I've enormously enjoyed the opportunity tointeract with so many students at different points intheir educational journey. So, some who are justbeginning their Undergrad, while others who arealready in their Masters. Students who are comingfrom all reaches of Canada. But, it's just been oneof the absolute highlights to get to know so manyother students who are so passionate about publicpolicy, and about getting to know the Canadianparliamentary system better. We will be picking off rightwhere we started yesterday. So, I will be asking, doesanybody have any questions for Honourable Xiaou? [Sarah] Hi, I'm Sarah Mazhero,and I'm from Montreal, Quebec, and I am servingas Speaker today. I wound up with the rolebecause of my prior experience being on the PrimeMinister's Youth Council. So, I'm already a bit awareof some of the mechanisms, and I was called to seeif I wanted to be Speaker

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