Starts may be up in New Brunswick, but they're not increasing at the same rate of other provinces that have made those measures. The assessment of the first three months in Nova Scotia, for example, shows that in the first quarter there have been more than 2,100 housing starts compared to, I think, 837 last year. It has blown by the all-time record, and some of the analysis I've reviewed attributes that to both the federal and the provincial decisions to remove the GST on new apartment construction in my home province.
We've seen significant increases in other provinces that have previously made similar decisions around GST. I saw Minister Nixon in Alberta a few years ago. In the past three years, there have been more housing starts in his province than in the previous 15 combined.
Working together, leveraging one another's opportunities to build on the work that we each can do, will allow us to accomplish a far greater level of homebuilding.