Thank you, Mr. Chair.
When we talk about affordable housing, it's important for us to know that in the 30 years prior to 1995, Canada, working with the provinces, built between 15,000 and 20,000 affordable housing units per year. Over the past 30 years, the federal government has hardly built any.
We need approximately 500,000 affordable housing units. If we were to build 15,000 to 20,000 per year for 30 years, that would give us approximately 500,000 affordable housing units.
Given that the market was used to build housing over the past 30 years, I wonder if it's even possible to deal with the affordable housing shortage with only market-based solutions.
Do you believe instead that we need a public investment program to build affordable housing outside of the traditional market?