Mr. ILSLEY:
And it was done.
Mr. FLEMING:
There was no talk then about the government having a limited responsibility with respect to housing conditions. The Minister of National Health and Welfare talked in glowing terms about the drive for tanks becoming the drive for houses; and there was no limitation of responsibility there, no talk about this being a local or provincial responsibility. There was glowing talk; there were glowing promises, about the construction of from 600,000 to 1,000.000 houses by the government. There was no talk then about these limitations in respect of the housing responsibility of the federal government; no talk of that responsibility being confined to the housing of veterans. It. was on these promises that the government got itself elected in 1945. If it had offered the kind of statement the Minister of Reconstruction and Supply
Supply
Reconstruction and Supply
made here last Saturday morning they would not be occupying the treasury benches here at the present time.
Mr. HOWE:
Xo man.talks so carelessly or inaccurately about housing as the hon. gentleman now on his feet, or so constantly.
Mr. FLEMING:
There is another example of the way in which the Minister of Reconstruction rides roughshod over the rules of the house. He did not get up to ask a question but to make a statement which he cannot justify. He does not like to have me remind him about the promises the government made, and I say that his statement last Saturday represented a complete reversal of the promises on which this government got itself elected in 1945.
Mr. WARREN:
May I ask the hon. member a question?
Mr. FLEMING:
No. j'ou cannot. I am sorry. I had enough of the hon. gentleman's interruptions recently in the public accounts committee. They were so utterly senseless that I will not waste my time on similar interruptions now. Time is too precious at this juncture of the session.
Mr. WARREN:
It is a fair question-
Mr. FLEMING:
The government talks freely about what it claims to have accomplished, but about ninety per cent of it has been accomplished by private enterprise. The government takes full credit for it; but there is no suggestion, when my hon. friends are making these glowing claims in regard to performance, about the responsibility being divided or the credit being divided with the provincial and local governments. W7hen it comes to claiming, credit the federal government claims the full credit. If they claim the credit, they will have to take the responsibility that goes with it.
Not only that, but there is a fourth factor in the situation and it is this. This government, hanging on to power it grasped under the national emergency legislation, is the one government that has been possessed of all the powers that were necessary to enable it to cope with the housing crisis in Canada.
Mr. WARREN:
May I ask the hon. member a question?
Mr. FLEMING:
Can you keep the hon. gentleman quiet, Mr. Chairman? If he cannot possess his soul in patience, deal with him as he ought to be dealt with.
Don't be so offensive.
Mr. FLEMING:
To continue, Mr. Chairman-
Mr. MITCHELL:
If wind could build houses you would build lots of them.
Mr. FLEMING:
I did not hear the hon. member.
Mr. MITCHELL:
If wind could build houses j'ou would build lots of them.
Mr. FLEMING:
Anyone can make remarks of that kind, and I do not know anyone who has befuddled the question of the government's relationship to federal responsibility more than the Minister-of Labour. I well remember when his department possessed all the powers that any department of labour could possess or could ask for, he was trying to excuse the failure of this government to take action and get down to brass tacks in the Ford Windsor strike a j'ear and a half ago, bj' saying, "It is not our responsibility; it is the responsibility of the provinces." When this government had taken all powers from the provinces under the guise of national emergency, that was the excuse of the minister. We will not waste more time on the Minister of Labour.
On these four grounds, Mr. Chairman, I submit to you that what the Minister of Reconstruction is saj'ing does not fit the facts, but is a complete reversal of government promises, and the position he is now taking represents a callous turning of the government's back on the responsibility which is property that of the federal administration.
When we come to individual items I shall have more questions to ask. I want to ask some questions particularly about the item with regard to Wartime Housing Limited, but the minister has taken his departure.
Mr. McILRAITH:
No, he has not. Don't
put that on Hansard.
Mr. FLEMING:
Out of all this welter of promises, in view of the confusion that exists in its various schemes, I say that it is time the government got down to brass tacks and told the committee exactly what the situation is. The last time we had a debate on housing I asked the minister to state what the immediate housing emergencj- shortage is in Canada to date. On July 22 of last year he made a statement in which he admitted-it was an amazing confession-that, in spite of the glowingly optimistic assertions he had made only a few months before, the emergency shortage of housing units on March 31, 1946, was
150.000, and that even if Canada built 60,000 houses in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1947, the shortage would rise to 180,000, increasing by twenty per cent, by March 31, 1947.
Mr. HOWE:
Where did you get that?
Supply-Reconstruction and Supply
Mr. FLEMING:
It is in Hansard.