Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to all of you.
It was an excellent presentation. Since you're our last group today, I want to say to you and all the other groups that we've had a fantastic two days. I don't mean fantastic in the sense of good news, but fantastic in the sense of frankness, and the sharing of some great new ideas from all the witnesses.
A lot of the recommendations that have been made are very similar to ones we've heard right across the country and obvious to a lot of us--reforming EI, a national child care program, a national housing strategy, making sure there are social infrastructure supports in communities in addition to the programs, and so on. There are always interesting additional pieces for us to look at when we meet with different individuals.
I want to go to two things. I'll start with Mr. de Jong on housing.
In my riding there's half a block of houses that Habitat for Humanity built. I helped nail some stuff down and was involved in the official handing over of the keys. But I can't tell you the pride that those people have. In a lot of work I've done in the past, I've seen that when people have a stable roof over their head and know they're not going to get kicked out, it makes a tremendous difference in how they approach the rest of life and the risks they can take. They know they won't be in the streets. They know they have a certain amount of security and a place to go. A lot of dignity goes with that and a whole lot of other things. I understand that.
Ownership was talked about earlier, and co-op housing is very good. Affordable assisted home ownership is also something that I think would work. It's extremely important.
Could you give us a few more specifics? What percentage of citizens in Toronto, let's say, who need housing would fit into that category and be able to take advantage of that program? Let's say we had a program for affordable home ownership; do you have an idea of what we'd be looking at in being able to take away from the wait list for affordable housing?