Finance committee  Thank you so much for the invitation. My name is Marie-Josée Houle and as the first federal housing advocate, my role is to carry out concrete actions at the national level to ensure that legislation, policies and programs respect the human right to adequate housing. The housing crisis has reached catastrophic proportions.

Finance committee  First of all, we're sitting on an $82-billion national housing strategy fund. These are taxpayers' dollars, and this is precious. It really does need to reach the people who need it the most. We are talking about affordability. Affordability, no matter where that investment is put, needs to live beyond the first buyer or the first renter.

Finance committee  Non-market housing is not just housing that's subsidized, because there are subsidies for people who have deeper economic needs. For the people who are non-subsidized, again, Tim's numbers spoke to that. That being said, when I'm hearing people talk about the rental market and say that if we only build more homes for mortgages, people will get out of the rental market and it will free up rentals....

Finance committee  Do you want to speak to that, Tim?

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. I think Ray Sullivan from the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association commented on the GST rebate moving forward, especially wishing that it could also be applicable to projects that were started a couple of years ago and then stalled. Through interim financing and the interest rate going up, the numbers have changed from the inception to what's happening now, so a lot of projects have stalled and it's unfortunate because they're not housing people.

Finance committee  Well, at least you know what you're looking at. When you do construction—and I was a developer for many years—you have your interim financing and you have your rate for that. Then, when you're ready to move in and you get your occupancy permit, you lock in your interest rate, and the ground has moved so quickly.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I'll start with rent stabilization. These mechanisms could be brought in by the federal government through their bilateral agreements with provinces, because the provinces certainly have the jurisdiction over vacancy control and rent control, but it can be imported as part of the agreement.

Finance committee  Again, these are amazing opportunities. I think we are sitting on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I see the window closing very quickly. This is very concerning to me. With the housing accelerator fund, this is an attempt for the federal government to have a direct relationship with municipalities that are willing, with the exception, unfortunately, of municipalities in Quebec, but, again, to really build in these conditions, because it is a substantial amount of taxpayers' money.

Human Resources committee  First off, the foreign investment in housing in Canada represents a very small percentage. It's not hard for a foreign investor to set up a shell corporation in Canada. To point fingers at international investment in Canada as the cause of financialization is one that is dangerous and short-sighted.

Human Resources committee  First of all, specifically, let's not look at it like a housing model and not assume that people are out to purposely spend 30% of their total household income on their home and will move on if they suddenly make more money. That's a fallacy and that's dangerous. This is where we really need to focus and this is an important time to do it.

Human Resources committee  That's right.

Human Resources committee  That's a good question. I think it's a multipronged approach. Stop the loss, curb the financialization, make it less profitable and give opportunities for non-market actors to acquire.

Human Resources committee  I'm going to admit that I don't know this program very well, but many of the buildings built by MURBs are now being financialized. Once the mortgage is done, there are no more restrictions. That's why, for non-profits and housing co-ops, because it's in their mandate to keep things affordable, it is an investment that will keep the affordability in perpetuity, which is what we want.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. Rather than talking about which programs should be cut, we should talk about the ones the government is no longer investing in. For example, this year there was no investment in the rapid housing initiative, yet that program was part of the national housing strategy, and has been very successful.

Human Resources committee  The key recommendation is to first of all recognize that financialization is systemic and pervasive, and it will require a coordinated approach to curb the harm that it's causing. It will require immediate actions, followed by longer-term, ongoing strategies. There is the tracking of ownership of financialized housing stock and measuring the impacts of financialization.