Thank you very much for your question.
For starters, I would note once again what I said in my opening remarks. Yes, the cities need to take responsibility for housing. It's true that we can do more, by expediting permitting, for example, but I can assure you the cities are fully engaged in this process.
At home in Longueuil, for example, we're conducting a regulatory review; we're in the process of revising all our municipal bylaws in order to improve efficiency and provide real estate promoters with more predictability within our city limits. However, the issue is far too complex for what the cities can do alone, and that's why all levels of government need to work together to address the housing crisis.
Even though some real estate developers have permits duly issued by the city, we're seeing that projects that are under way are experiencing slowdowns or have been completely halted for macroeconomic reasons and the fact that the numbers no longer make sense. Consequently, if a project isn't profitable any more, the promoter has no interest in completing it.
In addition, the cities have a responsibility for the development of our land. Cities can't be built on the urban spread model any more, as they used to be. Some witnesses noted that. You have to densify. That's especially true in large urban areas, such as the city of Longueuil, for example, and that involves additional infrastructure investment.
It's obviously costly to build new housing, but it costs just as much to adapt our existing infrastructure, which is aging and already requires significant efforts to maintain assets, so water can run through the taps of new housing units.
It seems silly, but it's actually as simple as that. We're going to need colossal investment, not only to meet public housing needs, but also to cope with the increased pressure on our infrastructure caused by climate change. The Union des municipalités du Québec estimates that the investments that will be necessary to adapt our infrastructure to climate change, particularly municipal water infrastructure, will amount to at least $2 billion.
So the problems are glaring, and, as you know, cities are funded in large part by property taxes. That's why we also need investment from other levels of government, including the federal level.