Thank you very much to all of our witnesses.
I heard a lot in the testimony about all the things the government can and is trying to do to help, but I didn't hear anything about all the things the government is doing to harm. Increasingly, it's becoming clear that government policies are the driving force behind the inordinate increase in the cost of housing for Canadians.
I have in front of me right now an affordability report produced by the Canadian Home Builders' Association. It's on housing and the provision thereof. This report shows that the cost of housing construction has barely increased at all since 1995. Based on the chart in front of me, that increase is probably about the same as the overall cost of living—very modest. Meanwhile, the cost of land on which to build has tripled.
The Canadian Home Builders' Association, joined by many others who work in this field, attribute this increase to a mountain of red tape, to restrictions on land development, and to development charges that are far in excess of the real cost associated with providing infrastructure to the new housing being built. This level of provincial and municipal interference in construction of new housing is the major driver behind the cost of owning one's home. It stands to reason that this analysis is correct. It is true that land costs go up with time—as the old saying goes, they're not making any more of it—but it is impossible to believe that the increase in land costs is simply a function of market economics.
Our population in this country has been growing less than 2% over the last two decades. It's not as though we've had a 250% increase in Canada's population, which would lead to such increases in land costs. What we have had is a massive increase in the cost of bringing a home to development: the permitting that must be achieved, the transaction costs, the consultants that are required in order to win approval at city hall, the subsequent fees and charges that are applied to that construction. All of these are limiting supply and, in so doing, increasing cost.
My question is for CMHC. Is your organization keeping track of the costs of government for each unit of housing that is built in the various markets across the country?