Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Minister.
Welcome to all the witnesses.
Mr. Fraser, I have some questions for you, but first I'd like to turn to Mr. Dugan from CMHC.
Mr. Dugan, you appeared before the committee on September 28, along with other members of CMHC. At that time, you undertook to provide the committee with written answers to our questions. We are still waiting for these answers, despite the fact that the committee clerk has followed up with you on numerous occasions.
For example, we asked you to provide us with a breakdown of CMHC programs by province, as well as information on the cost per dwelling for each of these projects. We're still waiting for an answer.
I also asked you about a social housing project in Joliette. The Office municipal d'habitation de Joliette wants to build a building in which half the units would be reserved for people living with disabilities. What's holding up the project is that the land, which is enclosed and can be used for nothing else, belongs to the Société d'habitation du Québec, which has a social housing agreement with CMHC. The Société d'habitation du Québec is prepared to sell this land. For its part, CMHC does not want to sell it at the municipal assessment price, but rather at the current price. So we're talking about nearly $1 million rather than $300,000.
I asked you what could be done to unblock this situation. Was it possible to terminate the agreement on social housing? Could the minister allow CMHC to sell the land, as proposed by the Société d'habitation du Québec? We are still waiting for these answers.
I wrote to you and CMHC about this more than five months ago. I wrote to the minister five months ago, but it's still deadlocked. The Office municipal d'habitation de Joliette can't start the work because of CMHC, which still hasn't replied.
Finally, we asked you to update your study on the housing shortage, which puts the figure at 3.5 million homes. This figure needs to be updated with the revised data from Statistics Canada. On this subject, the clerk's numerous attempts have finally led us to understand that we would get this answer in the first quarter of this year. So I'd like to know if you have a date for us.
With regard to this study, I'd like to remind you of something else. This will allow me to put a question to the minister. On February 6, Bloomberg reported that CIBC economist Benjamin Tal was talking about a shortfall of at least 5 million homes, not 3.5 million. This figure takes into account population growth, including non-permanent and temporary residents.
Mr. Dugan, are you ever going to give us an answer? You represent CMHC, and you are the only witness to have committed to providing written answers to the Standing Committee on Finance without having provided them.