Let me say that in Fredericton we've had discussions with Brian Duplessis of the Fredericton Homeless Shelters. I think he appeared here. His line is that he doesn't want more beds; he wants to be working himself out of a job there. We are simply saying that we're in a sort of backlog situation, in that from 1993 to probably 2001, there was not very much social housing built in Canada. I think we are still in a sort of backlog situation.
The government has to be the leader, I think, working with the provinces, the private sector—I think the private sector has a huge role to play in the affordable housing game—and the municipalities to make affordable housing development easier, because lots of times an affordable housing project takes so long to go through the regulatory process and the community engagement process that by the time the project gets built, the waiting list has gotten even higher. I think it is a collective effort, but I think the federal government has to be the leader.
How you get units on the street really quickly is a multi-faceted nut to crack, so to speak, because there are a lot of players involved. The federal government can put out more and more money, but it has to have the cooperation of all the players down the line, right down to the municipal planning department that's stamping the project. Dollars are wonderful, but it has to be a partnership effort.
As I said, our Fredericton affordable housing committee has been doing very well. We have all the actors at the table. On the zoning process, in the City of Fredericton there's a sign saying “zoning control”. That says it all right there. The word “control” has to be turned around. A city has to want to have affordable housing projects, to engage them, rather than having the not in my backyard scenario.