Thank you.
I'm Geoff Cape, the CEO of Assembly. I am also here to represent a coalition we've put together over the course of the last six months, focused on industrialized construction: the Canadian industrialized construction coalition. It has over 100 companies aligned in their views on the policy requirements to try to advance affordability in Canada.
First off, thank you, all of you, for focusing on such a critically important subject, the affordability agenda. I understand that Bill C-4 has a particular focus on the GST relief, and that is an opportunity both to affect purchasers and to accelerate the construction of new builds. Certainly, I believe it's the right idea at the broadest level. It is an opportunity to help accelerate purchasing and create the necessary momentum in the industry, so it's warmly welcomed.
I suppose there is always a debate about whether it's enough, too much or not enough in regard to the scope of that particular policy recommendation. That's not for me to opine on. I know it's a policy initiative that's required in relation to a larger collection of policy agendas.
With that in mind, the announcement made by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure on Sunday, September 14, to invest $13 billion in the Build Canada Homes initiative is the right companion to the GST relief strategy—the larger, more robust program that wraps around GST rebate and feeds and supports individual consumers of housing. That larger strategy is what I believe is the necessary focus for us as we drive towards affordability in Canada. It's a critical requirement for us to shift the way we build and the way we build our supply chain relationships in regard to the construction of housing in Canada.
With that in mind, the coalition we put together developed 19 primary and 17 secondary recommendations, all of them policies oriented towards financing, supply chain integration development and the critical requirement for streamlining approvals and approval processes across the country.
I'll leave it at that, other than to identify that the work Assembly is doing right now is drawing on global best practices. As a company, we spent the last seven years trying to figure out where in the world the most informed and advanced thinking is in regard to both policy and fabrication for affordable housing, and we landed on Sweden. We designed a deep working relationship with Lindbäcks, one of the largest firms in the world focused on modular housing. The learning curve for us, I think, is something we can share across the country. It's certainly an idea that should be shared through policy networks provincially, municipally and federally, of course. The opportunity to leapfrog in Canada is available to us, and that's my hope.