Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll speak to the motion that was put forward to study housing and the amendment that was put forward by the Liberal member.
To his point, we do have witnesses here and we are studying a very important bill. These witnesses, who represent the majority of workers across Canada, have told us very strongly today that housing is the biggest issue for a lot of these workers.
You can't move and you can't rent if you don't have a job. You can't get a job if you don't have a house. We know that these stats are staggering. In particular, according to an RBC report, it was the “toughest time ever to afford a home” in Canada, based on ownership costs as a proportion of median household income.
The motion put forward by my colleague was to study this and report the matter to the House of Commons so that we can get to the bottom of this.
The average Canadian family must now pay 63.5% of its total pre-tax household income. The amendment put forward has removed the piece to report this to the House of Commons, which is where it would be debated and where you would actually get policy and legislation in place.
There's nothing here, so I can't support this amendment.