Human Resources committee  It was $1 billion.

Human Resources committee  Yes. Thank you very much, Chair. I would like to thank you very much for having me here today to talk about the housing challenges Canada is facing, what CMHC is doing to help today and what we see as the path forward. We at CMHC are seeing two distinct but connected housing crises.

Human Resources committee  Yes, we'd be very happy to.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for that question. I've had the privilege of speaking to this committee before about the decades during which CMHC was not engaged in the delivery of affordable housing. With the launch of the national housing strategy in 2017, we've had to re-establish our connection with the non-profit sector.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for the question. This is a question that's been raised at this table before. There was no change in the definition of the benefit. I think there was some misunderstanding with how it was communicated, but it was not our intention to cut out certain segments of the population.

Human Resources committee  I can't comment on the specific project that's been mentioned here, but I'm very happy to take the details and follow up on the particular circumstances of that project. With respect to the $25,000 limit, I recognize that it is challenging for non-profits to work with lower levels of contribution, but in some ways there has been such a demand for the contribution of funding that we've had to ration it to ensure that the contribution of funding gets to as many projects as possible.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for that question. We're halfway through the rollout of the coinvestment fund, and we have conditionally committed half the funding for the 110,000 units that are referred to here. We provide funding to proponents as the construction proceeds. To this date, the construction is completed on about 27,000 units and all the funding has been disbursed.

Human Resources committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for that question. I do appreciate the question because customer service is very important to CMHC. I'm very disappointed to hear about the recent experience the MP has had with CMHC. There's no doubt that CMHC has been out of direct housing delivery for many decades.

Human Resources committee  If I could provide an example, in response to criticism from clients about the length of our application process, we instituted a new process for a contribution-only stream. Under that stream, applicants can complete applications in less than 10 minutes, and CMHC can provide within four weeks.

Human Resources committee  With respect to the rental construction financing initiative, this is a 100% loan program. Its aim is increasing the supply of market rentals. In order to decrease the level of rents to make the projects work, you need either greater levels of contribution or rent supplements. Those are typical tools that you need to drive down rents.

Human Resources committee  There's the Canada housing benefit. That's the rent supplement program. We call it backward-loaded, as the bulk of the funding is available in the latter years of the program. The implementation of that goes through the provinces and territories, and we can definitely do greater work with the provinces and territories to make sure the Canada housing benefit gets to those who are most in need.

Human Resources committee  I would encourage the non-profits in your area to reconnect with their client representative. I would also focus on CMHC's working not only with a non-profit but with the provincial and municipal governments to make sure the various housing programs that we have available at the various levels of government are aligned, because I know that for non-profits to make their project work, they need not only CMHC funding but funding from other sources.

Human Resources committee  We have employees across Canada. I think most of them are in the field all the time, meeting proponents. If they haven't come out to meet the clients in your riding, I'll be very happy to send our staff to them.

Human Resources committee  Mr. Chair, we will continue to take feedback from this committee. We welcome that. I do not agree with the statement that the national housing strategy has been a failure. It has been a very significant change in terms of the federal government's involvement in housing. We have learned many lessons along the way and have improved our programs.

Human Resources committee  I will provide that.