Thank you for your question.
We're seeing that, but to a lesser extent. Is it because of interest rates? There are lots of factors to consider, many of which have been mentioned today. I'm pretty sure that the situation is similar everywhere and that the labour shortage is hurting all sectors.
Lots of people say there are plenty of projects but no developers, workers and builders to respond to calls for tender, and that slows down housing starts. Certainly, the interest rate is a factor, but construction costs are also a factor. This slowdown is multifactorial. Another thing we hear a lot is that the municipal sector is very involved.
To follow up on Ms. Bolduc's comments, I would add that we've seen a lot of people moving back to the regions since the pandemic, especially young people. Big companies' expansion plans are running into obstacles. At the end of the day, we can't accommodate the new people we would like to bring into our communities. Young people who want to come back to the regions are looking for houses, but what we're hearing is that there's nothing left for sale or for rent anywhere. Vacancy rates are below 0%. It's crazy. There's no such thing as a 3% vacancy rate anywhere in Quebec. It's a really difficult situation.
There are also all kinds of regulatory barriers. It's not the same in Quebec as it is in Ontario. Everything hinges on agreements with the Société d'habitation du Québec.
As we said earlier, we're glad there's an agreement in place, but the details are still up in the air. What we want is decentralization so municipalities can better assess and meet people's needs.
What we've found is that it's hard to get into these programs because the criteria aren't geared to our reality. That means there's no flexibility and projects take longer to get done.