Thank you for that welcome, Mr. Chair.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
It seems that it is impossible at present to build housing for the poorest people, for the people who spend a large portion of their income on housing.
In the documents prepared by the analysts for the meeting today, we see that at present, without eliminating the goods and services tax, the GST, it is not possible to build rental housing, even at market price, in Canadian cities. We know that this price is very high.
What I understand is that the GST-related measure would make certain construction projects involving housing that would rent at market price, which is extremely high, marginally profitable. We are talking about $2,000 to $2,500 or even $2,700 per month in my riding. I would therefore like you to confirm that there will be no affordable housing in these projects, which will instead be for market price units.
Out of the new units that will be built as a result of eliminating the GST, there will be no affordable units.
Is that correct?