Thank you.
To Ms. Bowers, one of the things I've heard when talking to folks who were involved in producing social housing in what I will call the “heyday” of the CMHC, prior to the mid 90s, is that the availability of regular and predictable annual funding meant that organizations could hope to engage in a planning process, acquire land and then work toward succeeding at one of the annual regular offerings. However, without that, they're in a very reactive position. Their land or buildings become available and they're trying to figure out how to secure the capital to snatch up the land or the building. They're competing with investors, and it's very hard to make a plan for how to move forward on social housing, because they don't know when funding windows are going to open and close. I can understand the reticence to acquire land and other liabilities when they don't know when funding is going to be made available.
To what extent do you think that, even with the new national housing strategy, the CMHC and its partners and the non-profit sector are still operating in that kind of reactive way? What are some of the ways that government might help them be able to engage once again in a more proactive planning process to deliver social housing?