Thank you very much.
I'm here on a two-tiered mission, and I bet this will surprise you, but I'm here to thank the present government for what it did recently for affordable housing. I mean the $1.4 billion that was recently transferred to the PTs by way of trust. In New Brunswick, we are looking at close to $25 million, until March 2009, that we can spend on affordable housing. The only thing we can hope for in New Brunswick is that our new provincial government can get off the mark and work with us and spend that money before 2009, but spend it in the best possible manner. We think, if we're smart, we will add around 1,000 affordable housing units in New Brunswick, so that's the good part.
You might want to say to me, “What the hell are you doing here, then, today?” Well, I have another side. I think that the federal government should make affordable housing the foundation or the cornerstone of its social policy framework.
In the invitation that you sent us here, you asked us to tell you what the budget should have in it to ensure that our citizens are healthy, have the right skills, are motivated, and will do better for themselves and for their communities and their society. How can you be healthy, number one, if you can't afford to eat because your housing takes up 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% of your total income? Okay? So don't put money in health first. Put money in housing, because it ain't going to help. You're putting on a band-aid, but you're not fixing the wound.
It's the same thing for motivating people to educate themselves, for parents to motivate their kids to do something. When you are poor, and you can't even afford to feed your kids, and you got to take them to the food back or the soup kitchen, how are going to be motivated to motivate your kids for the future? So there again, put the money where it would do the most good. If you have a safe and secure and affordable place to live, then these other things will come. You will be healthier. You will be more motivated. You will want to work. You will want to contribute. So that's that one.
My suggestion is, if you say to me that affordable housing is okay till March 2009, so shut up, I will ask you why you don't, in the 2007 budget, put a fair chunk of money aside, and in the 2008 budget do the same thing. When the end of this program comes in 2009, you will have another big chunk of money. It will not hurt as much, and then you'll be ready to continue to establish affordable housing as the cornerstone of your social policy programs.
We are concerned about some other programs, though, that we hear through the grapevine might terminate in March 2007. The RRAP program, the rehabilitation program for low-income housing, is a heck of a good program. It's been there a long time. It's created an industry within itself. It makes the stock more viable for the future. I can't believe for one minute that this government is going to cancel the RRAP program. One thing that you've got to tell us now, or tell us in early November is that you won't cancel it, because it's creating a heck of a mess in the industry.
The same thing goes for SCIPI, Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative. I'm part of SCIPI. It did a heck of a lot of good. It is doing a heck of a lot of good in the communities. It involves a lot of people who care and who volunteer, and it helps the people who need them. The reason we need SCIPI is that we don't have enough affordable housing. So unless we get enough of that, we're going to continue to need SCIPI, but there, again, tell us now, early in November, that SCIPI isn't going to be shut down come next March, because I know it's creating a heck of a lot of havoc in our areas.
There are other things. We're hear you're going to sell off CMHC. Please don't do it. It's served Canadians for 60 years. I don't believe that's going to happen anyway, but I'm saying use the funds that CMHC is bringing in; turn them around and put them into affordable housing, and then you won't have to have that in your budget.
I could go on, but thank you.