Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Weiler.
As you know very well, B.C. is one of the provinces where the housing crisis is the most acute. I think we are all rightly very focused on that.
I want to also take the chance, since we're talking about B.C., to thank the provincial government of B.C. for their very collaborative approach and very strong housing program. They're a great partner for us. We very much have B.C. in mind when we're designing housing programs. We are trying very hard, wherever we have shared objectives—which is pretty much everywhere—to build programs that work together.
One example of that is our measure on Airbnb and short-term rentals. That's a place where the government of B.C. has really been leaning in. We looked at the tool box we had federally, at Finance Canada, and how we could use it to help strengthen the B.C. measures. I must say that I was very pleased to read a real estate agent quoted in the Toronto Star over the weekend. He said he was seeing a real change in the housing market in Victoria. He attributed that to people who were holding apartments as short-term rentals understanding that it's no longer economical and releasing them into the market. That's just one specific example of how cracking down on short-term rental can provide immediate relief in some of the most stressed housing markets in the country, including B.C.
Just last week, I was in Vancouver at a project for the construction of 231 affordable housing units in the Downtown Eastside. I would like to particularly point out to this committee, and to the Canadians who may be watching us, that I first went to this project two years ago when it was empty land and shovels were going into the ground. I went back last week, and it's almost finished.
By the way, the people building those homes were very proud of the work they were doing. They went out of their way to say that it gives them personal satisfaction to be building affordable homes. These are very nice places. A lot of them have beautiful mountain views and they're right in downtown Vancouver. There was a studio unit starting at $550 a month. I saw a two-bedroom for $750 month that was very nice. We need to do much more, but it is possible to build affordable housing in the cities where it is needed the most.
I'll give a shout-out to the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, which was instrumental in doing this.
Let me also give a shout-out to the City of Kelowna. They now have a housing accelerator fund deal that includes making city lands available for affordable housing and having more homes built near transit.
Let me also point out that we are very keen to see the impact of the lifting of the GST on purpose-built rental housing in B.C. and the additional $20 billion to the Canada mortgage bonds program. We definitely need more apartments in B.C., and those two programs will lead to a lot more being built.
Thanks.