Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
I want to start by correcting something that was said on inflation earlier by our colleague Mr. Morantz. The governor of the Bank of Canada said yesterday that he's not going to cut rates until he sees progress towards price stability for a much longer period. Removing the carbon pricing would not provide that type of sustained confidence, since it's a one-time decrease. This scapegoating of carbon pricing is not only inaccurate as the cause of inflation in interest rates but a shameful distraction. What's really behind the increase is the cost of fossil fuels in Canada.
In my province of B.C. and in metro Vancouver, the price of gas jumped 22¢ in the last month, but the carbon price added only about three cents. What's really behind this is that type of behaviour from oligopolies, global instability and a lack of refining capacity, which means that the fossil fuel industry ends up benefiting from that considerably, but of course we won't hear the Conservative Party talking about that.
I will ask a question to Madame Houle.
You mentioned in your opening remarks that the investments from the Government of Canada should be focused solely on non-market housing, but the reality in Canada is we have a challenge in getting the supply of all types of housing, including market housing, built overall.
Last year, in Bill C-56, we did announce a cut to the GST on all purpose-built rentals, including market purpose-built rentals. I hope you are able to comment on that and on whether you see a role for the federal government to ensure that more supply of housing overall gets built as well.