You know, Wayne, how proud and how pleased I was of your very early engagement on this file, when both of us started our new careers as MPs. It made a big difference. You'll remember I went to visit your riding. You introduced me to all the wonderful community organizations that make such a big difference in the lives of people in your community and in your riding.
Not being partisan, I want to commend you and encourage you to continue that hard work.
You mentioned affordable and safe housing, and an affordable and safe home is key for Canadians to live well. It's also key for communities to be inclusive, where everyone has the opportunity to participate in the growth of the economy, and where everyone has the ability to benefit from that growth in our economy.
To be homeless is probably the greatest source of human deprivation that we can imagine in Canada, and you have said very clearly that we've never had a national housing strategy. That's another example of non-partisanship. For the last 25 years individual Canadians and organizations have been asking the federal government for a national housing strategy. It's going to decrease by more than half a million the number of Canadian families living in homes that are either unaffordable or unsafe.