We are very concerned about the end of the agreements. It's something that will affect all of Canada and virtually all social housing units. So it's a major problem that has emerged in the past two years. Across Canada, 11,000 units are no longer subsidized by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation because the mortgage agreement has expired.
The idea behind all that was to believe that the agreement would expire, that the people would have properly maintained their units, that there would be no problems and that we would have the money to help lower-income individuals. In real life, that's not how it works.
Except in the past two years, the federal government has always refused to grant subsidies to renovate these units. So there were no subsidies to renovate the units, whereas those units have deteriorated and, at the end of the agreements, people will probably be forced to take out a new mortgage. As a result, the saving that will come from the end of the mortgage will be offset by another mortgage, this time to adequately renovate the buildings.
As you say, for us, the major consequence is still for the low-income renters. I live in a housing coop, and all the money we receive from the federal government, from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, goes to low-income individuals in our coop. That's why, instead of paying 50% of their income for housing, these people pay 25%. However, that subsidy will now be withdrawn from those people from one day to the next. This means that they will be forced back into the misery in which they formerly found themselves. In addition, these people could very well go away, and where will they go, in view of market rents?