Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
We have the good fortune of being a country that is well organized, where every lobby group is able to come and articulate its priorities and comments. I think that is a very good thing. Since we have a limited amount of time, we have to focus in on certain issues. It is very refreshing to hear from people who work to fight poverty. I am thinking specifically of the presentation Mr. Howlett gave earlier.
I have been an MP for six years, and I have the privilege of belonging to a parliamentary association. I chose Africa as a priority because that continent needs our help and our cooperation. I went to Africa two weeks ago. We visited two of the poorest countries, Benin and Burkina Faso. Assistance from the government was cut because they are no longer considered target countries for international aid. Our government made that decision as part of its move to freeze international aid. I simply want to point out we need to realize that even though we have many issues that need to be addressed here, at home, it is still important to look beyond our borders and to view our situation in terms of what is going on elsewhere.
In your presentation, Mr. Howlett, you talked about the poverty that exists here, in our own country. I agree with you. We do have poverty here, and we do not do enough about it. For a number of years now, the Bloc Québécois has been trying to give disadvantaged seniors the Guaranteed Income Supplement to bring them up to at least the low-income cutoff, which used to be called the poverty line, and the government has always refused to do so, saying it would cost too much. So it costs too much to keep people living at the poverty line. What a shame, but that is where things stand right now.
You talked about a national social housing strategy. I agree that it is important to build more social housing. In my own municipality, in Laval, Quebec, there are at least 1,000 people on the waiting list for subsidized housing, affordable housing provided by the city. So there is a desperate need for affordable housing across the country. Ms. Rothman raised the point that there is a cost attached to that, that people who are mistreated and living in poverty give rise to social costs that are always seen as exorbitant, but that doing nothing leads to other costs.
I have a question for Mr. Morsky, of the Canadian Construction Association. What do you think of the financial repercussions, at a minimum level, of a massive plan to build social housing units? Would it be a good expense, in terms of creating construction jobs across the country?