That's an excellent question, Mr. Blaikie. Thank you for raising it.
Yes, we haven't addressed that today, but the use of public lands is a concern for us.
We have to consider various models and think differently about this so we can respond to the current crisis.
Under one of those models—and there are many—housing could be built on municipal, provincial or even federal property. You could adopt approaches involving emphyteutic leases or the possibility that people might own the built environment but not necessarily the underlying land. That would certainly make it possible to lower prices and to access ownership. It would also undermine all efforts at speculation. It could definitely be considered as one of the measures that might be encouraged.
Obviously, if housing were a simple issue, a single measure would already have helped to resolve the crisis. In actual fact, it takes many measures to promote housing construction, housing access, access to ownership and especially choice. What concerns us right now is that Canadians don't have choice. They are either renters out of necessity or owners, but just barely. As we previously mentioned, there's a housing deficit. Some 3.5 million units will have to be built by 2030, and that number will only increase.
In short, all measures that can be taken to resolve the situation should be considered.