Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot. He is an experienced and skilled debater. I could not possibly address all the points that he articulated so well. However, I did want to ask him about the issue of social housing. He did indicate that there was nothing in the budget on the social housing side.
By way of background, I am aware of a federal study dealing with homelessness in the City of Toronto in which it was found that 35% of the homeless suffered from mental illness, 28% were youth alienated from their families, 12% were aboriginals off reserve, 10% were abused women, and the other 10% or 15% were people with other physical, mental or social problems. In regard to people who need social housing, like the homeless, this turns out to be more a social problem than an economic one.
Affordable housing is another issue. I know that the Government of Canada does invest in affordable housing, so I would ask the member if he could help to articulate what should be done on the affordable housing side, but also, how do we specifically address the social problems with regard to social housing?