Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is good to be back here on the committee. I note just a bit of partisan sniping there, but we will try to stay out of that. My comments will be addressed to Mr. Gaudreau.
I come from Saskatchewan. I am a member from Saskatchewan. They take a fairly aggressive approach with respect to housing. I know there are many dimensions to poverty, and housing is one of those. In Saskatchewan, of course, it's not only at that level of homelessness; low-income families and even middle-income families are having issues with housing.
Saskatchewan has taken an approach that is probably multi-faceted. I am not sure if you are aware of some of the recent programs they have had. One of the programs that I was particularly involved in, just in the past week, was a special program for private developers to build housing for low-income families that would be provided a forgivable loan over a period of 20 years, provided the housing unit was used for that purpose.
I believe the program design is by the province. It administers a number of suites of programs. The federal government basically dealt with a federal-provincial agreement. They said housing is a provincial responsibility, so they let it stay there and just dealt with the federal contribution. That's one model.
Another model would essentially be for the government itself to be directly involved with developers through tax credits, tax breaks, or some other form to enhance the availability of housing. Those are two different models. Do you have a preference for one of those two models?
My second question is this: do you find the approach that I mentioned with respect to the Saskatchewan program relating to private developers acceptable?