Thank you very much. I will be happy to respond.
As you mentioned, new affordable housing needs to be built. In practical terms, the federal government could subsidize construction projects, along with the provinces and municipalities. Initiatives at all levels of government are being put forward to build housing. This is the case in Quebec and I am sure it is also the case elsewhere in the country. The federal government can play an important role in subsidizing these projects and coordinating with all the players to ensure that the projects are carried out properly, while ensuring that the housing remains affordable. The goal is not to build housing that will be subject to speculation, but to have rents remain affordable for young people and others in need.
With respect to home ownership, there is another idea, which I didn't have time to present. I think we need to start thinking about taxing or putting a tax on the sale of buildings, even those that are used as primary residences. There is still a lot of construction, purchase and renovation going on, and prices are rising so fast that young people are no longer able to buy a first property. So, we think that an interesting solution would be to tax the profit generated when selling a residence, even a principal residence. The money raised could then be reinvested to help young people buy a first property.
I was also talking about grants to people in need. We need to continue to directly target younger people with lower incomes to allow them to adequately house themselves. This can be done through the various programs already in place, but we really need to rethink our programs, like the Home Buyers' Plan. We really need to re-evaluate whether it is an effective tool, how many young people have used it and how it has contributed to home ownership. We need to try to re-evaluate the programs that are in place and ask if we could create new programs that would have a more direct effect.