Thank you.
For clarity, I'm the member of Parliament for St. John's East in Newfoundland and Labrador. I'm so pleased to be here as part of this Atlantic conversation.
Welcome to all the witnesses.
If I could just make a quick note, the accelerator fund was introduced in March 2023, and the application process ended in June 2023. I'm pleased to say that in September, London, Ontario, was awarded 2,000 units. I wanted to start on that note to say that number is really where we need to be in terms of looking at our housing challenges.
Mr. Kabalen, I'll begin with you. Thank you for the work you're doing. It's really quite tremendous. However, if we have a crisis situation, and we know that we do, I think we need to look at our housing needs along that continuum. I spoke about this briefly yesterday.
From that entry point to the place in the market where the housing needs need to be market-driven, in their understanding you need supportive housing. You need to have affordable housing. You need rentals. You need all players at the table, including the universities—I'll link you into this—because it's all interconnected.
How do we begin to break down those silos—the levels of government and the community—to max out and quantify what the need is along that continuum, so that when we roll out solutions like the project in London, Ontario, which is significant, we're able to do that?
I can tell you that in my riding, zoning approval is an issue for larger projects. It's over to you on that, please.