I can't say that it meets all of our needs. As you noted, for the past twenty years or so, we have not seen any serious investment in social housing in Canada.
To answer your question, I would like to advance the following premise. As I stated in my opening remarks, any strategy aimed at addressing poverty issues must take into account racial analysis. Strategies for housing and access to education, employment and health do not take consideration racial discrimination, and historic factors that have led to the marginalization of some communities in Canada, such as aboriginal communities. If these factors are not taken into account, it will not be possible to develop programs that effectively meet the needs of these groups.
Let me give you an example, a statistic that I believe speaks volume and is rather shocking at the same time. Between 1980 and 2000, the level of poverty among Canadians of European descent declined by 20%. During this same period, the level of poverty among aboriginal communities and racial minorities increased by 360%.
While some programs and strategies have been developed over time, if they fail to specifically target these communities, which already face discrimination at the grassroots level, then this issue will never be resolved. The same is true of housing problems.