Thank you, Dan, for reminding us of the importance of affordable housing across Canada. Of course it impacts families, children, seniors, women living in circumstances of family violence and many others. It impacts their abilities to be well and live safely. It also has an impact on communities. If we want our vibrant communities and cities across Canada to keep prospering, we need to have middle-class workers housed safely and affordably. Otherwise, construction workers, clerks, teachers, nurses, police and other people will not be able to live in the cities in which they need to work.
That's a clear crisis, and you're very good at highlighting it. In B.C. and the Lower Mainland in particular, this crisis is terrible. That's why we needed a new era of housing leadership and partnership on the part of the federal government, something that was lacking for too many years.
That came through the launch of the first-ever national housing strategy a year and a few months ago, in November 2017. This is a historic step for the federal government to assume its responsibilities, to make sure that every Canadian has access to a safe and affordable home. It's a $40-billion plan, a 10-year plan, a long-term plan, because this is what stakeholders want. It's also something that is going to decrease homelessness by at least 50%, take unacceptable housing conditions out of housing needs—more than half a million families—and as you said, lead to an era of partnership with municipalities, cities and provinces that we haven't seen for decades.