Transport committee  That analysis would be under the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which is the proponent for that particular program. Certainly I can ask for CMHC to provide more information on the 100,000 homes under that program.

Transport committee  With regard to the investment decision on that particular project you mentioned, we will ask the bank for a follow-up. The bank itself does not invest in homes; it is the CMHC that invests in homes.

Transport committee  Thank you very much for the question. When we look at the investments at Infrastructure Canada and the importance of those investments, as you said before, to make communities more vibrant and to make sure that the tax base of municipalities is not putting too much pressure on the bills of Canadians, our programs have been able to make a huge difference.

Transport committee  That's correct. Out of the 48 projects on which they've come to a financial close, they have financing in place of almost $10 billion, but 28 billion dollars' worth of investments are being made.

Transport committee  It's not up to the government.

Transport committee  For Infrastructure Canada, we work closely with Indigenous Services Canada, who are the primary infrastructure funders for first nation communities, and they are changing the framework to be able to work with first nation communities, for them to have longer lead times and autonomy over the types of infrastructure they're investing in for their communities.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  As I mentioned before, the Infrastructure Bank, through the growth plan, was given a mandate to do retrofits and look at the built environment to reduce GHGs and look at different types of investments to be able to allow that to happen.

Transport committee  That wouldn't be a policy. That's an investment decision, and that's under the board of directors' accountability and stewardship, and independent of the government. That's an investment decision for a particular project, versus a policy decision, which is looking at how we can reduce GHGs in the built environment by retrofitting buildings.

Transport committee  I've already answered the question from a policy perspective. In terms of the investment decisions themselves, what I can do is ask the Canada Infrastructure Bank to provide the clerk and the committee with a rationale for why they chose that investment.

Transport committee  As I mentioned, the built environment has significant GHGs, and from a climate perspective we do need to reduce our GHGs in the country, so we are looking at alternative financing and a way of financing that supports both private and public buildings in reducing their GHGs.

Transport committee  The GST and tax are under the Department of Finance, but the minister mentioned the number of homes, when you were having a discussion with him, as being 200,000 to 300,000 over a decade. The analysis would be for Finance Canada because they are the department that does all of the tax changes for the federal government.

Transport committee  Thank you for the question. No, ministerial mandate letters from the Prime Minister's Office go directly to the minister. I don't see them until after that.

Transport committee  We are continuing to work with the programs we have, such as the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund. For the whole country, with regard to housing needs, for instance, we are continuing to work on the government's priorities.

Transport committee  I want to thank the member for his question. The program will end on March 31, 2024, not December 31, 2023. We are engaged in many discussions with all the provinces and territories. That started a year ago and I expect the necessary agreements will be in place before March 31, 2024.