Sure. As I mentioned in my presentation, land is the problem. For example, in Vancouver, land is sold by the buildable foot. It's between about $600 and $800 per buildable foot, while construction is between $300 and $400 per buildable foot. The problem, really, in my view, has to do with land and the out-of-control price of land.
In response to the previous speaker, there's a lot of information out there that if you have free land, you can build affordable housing. The rents will cover the amortization of the mortgage, maintenance costs and so forth. We don't have free land, though, so what do we do?
It can be done a couple of different ways. One way that I promote is what the City of Cambridge has done. They have said that they will allow double density in any part of the city above the existing zoning, but in return for 100% affordability. What that does is create a market for non-profit housing providers that is not in competition with the market providers, because that extra bonus in land value only goes to the non-profit provider.
Now, each different city would have to look at their own economics separately. Adding CMHC funding, as the previous speaker mentioned, would be a good way to support that, but the key point I'm making is that the problem here is not the cost of building. The building might have increased in cost by 30%, as was just mentioned, but the cost of the land has increased by 500%. Policy mechanisms are available, notably through zoning and development charges, to manage land price.