I want to make a few brief points. I'm conscious that others have their hands up as well, and of the time available.
This is obviously an incredibly important issue for all of our constituents. I too am in favour of studying it more. What's important, though, is to be conscious of the work this committee has already done on this matter within the inflation study. Certainly the permanent members of the committee will recall that there was a component that was focused on housing, and we had some really thoughtful folks come in here to give us advice on the kinds of things that need to be done to address the challenges people are having with the affordability of housing. That inflation study isn't complete yet, so if we're serious about those insights, then I think we should also find a way to wrap that study up so that we can offer that to the minister as advice.
Going back to the idea of a separate study, we've done work and other committees are and have been doing studies on housing, so I think we need to be conscious of that. I want to be clear that I don't mean that I don't want to study it further, as it is a priority for folks, but in my view it should be done in a targeted and thoughtful way. This is so we'd be studying the aspect of the problem that touches Canadians the most and where we could have the most impact, and so that we wouldn't be restudying things that have already been done. That would not be the best use of our time as a committee and it would not be in the best interest of Canadians.
I am open to looking at how we can do more studies on housing along the lines of what Daniel proposed today, for example. I think it would be interesting to scope the study in such a way that we'd be studying an aspect of this problem that really touches Canadians but doesn't repeat what we've done in the past.
I do think this has to be thought through and discussed off-line by members of the committee so that we can structure a study that really has the best impact for people.