Thank you very much for your answer. Of course, that would stimulate other provincial governments to follow the lead of the B.C. NDP government as well, so thank you for that.
I'd like to go to Mr. Morrison now.
We have seen unprecedented levels of what the government and federal agencies call “liquidity supports” for the banking sector. Some $750 billion was provided.
In the banking industry, we've seen profits so far during this pandemic of $29 billion among Canada's big banks. A big part of that was as a result of the CMHC, which put in place the IMPP program. The $150 billion that could have been provided in liquidity for co-operative housing, for public housing, and for the affordable housing that your organization is such a strong advocate for, went instead went basically to pad Canada's big banks and their bottom line.
You've talked about an important investment of $5 billion. Do you feel that the government's priorities, rather than bailing out the big banks, should really be focused on using all of the incredible resources of the federal government—$14 billion thrown at Trans Mountain, $750 billion in liquidity supports—to be tackling priorities such as housing and providing the $5 billion that you feel is vital as a first step in meeting housing needs in this country?
Second, I want to ask how you felt about the refusal of Parliament to pass the indigenous-led housing strategy that the NDP brought to the floor of the House of Commons a couple of weeks ago.