Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, I have a request and two questions for you. I will fire them off, and then, you can answer.
To begin with, could you please ask your officials to send the committee the finance department's projections pertaining to the GST rebate enhancement? How many more housing units will it generate? Are the projections based solely on Mike Moffatt's assessment, or does your department have more detailed analysis? That is my request.
Now for my two questions.
First, under Bill C‑56, the GST rebate applies to the construction of any rental housing but does not include any criteria for affordability. If I understand the bill correctly, you have the power to define affordability criteria in the regulations at a later time. Do you plan to do that? Does this measure apply to all rental housing?
Second, a lot of developers are a bit confused by the fact that Bill C‑56 does little to define certain things as they relate to coming into force. Some measures are deemed to have come into effect on September 14, 2023, but they aren't well defined. I'll give you an example, so you can enlighten us or, if need be, get back to us with a written answer.
Take a construction project. Say the foundation of the building is dug before September 14, 2023. The ground floor is commercial space, and everything above is rental units. Since the construction started—but only for the commercial space—the developer wants to know whether they can access the rebate. The digging started before Bill C‑56 came into force. People have questions about that.
In short, I want to know about the possible addition of affordability criteria through regulation, and the definition that would apply in the scenario I just described.