Housing is a critical federal function. CMHC was created after the Second World War to deal with a significant housing crisis at that time. Over the subsequent 30 years, from the sixties through to the 1980s, there was a real strong investment from CMHC into building one of the most enviable social housing systems in the world here in Canada. We built over 600,000 units of social housing right across the country. That number hasn't increased since the 1980s, and in fact it has started to deteriorate. As the operating agreements have come due, we're seeing a decline in social housing across the country, even as need is increasing.
Middle-income people struggling to afford housing, as well as wealthier Canadians, have all put into CMHC through the insurance program and through different ways. When they do that, they expect that money is going to feed back into social housing and into affordable housing, and into a complete housing system, because they know that the next generation is going to need help getting their foot in the door.
I think Canadians want to contribute to create a complete housing system. That's why we have the system in place. That's why we have CMHC in place. However, when CMHC in its annual reports pats itself on the back, saying, “You know, we've contributed $18 billion over 10 years towards deficit reduction”, it's not fulfilling that prime mandate that Canadians expect it to fulfill. If it gets back to that, we can have a robust housing system again here in Canada.