Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all the witnesses for joining us.
Our housing study is important. This isn't our committee's first study on the topic.
We need to get away from the wording of the motion. It's highly partisan, unfortunately. The wording seeks to find out who did better; which party, the Conservatives or Liberals, has disinvested in housing since 2006; and what the effects of this disinvestment have been. Everyone knows the consequences. We also know about the failure of the national housing strategy. That said, we can't lump all the programs together.
The objective of the strategy was to build and develop an affordable housing stock. Clearly, we're going through a crisis and the strategy has failed to offset the effects of disinvestment. At least, that's our view.
Mr. Irwin, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's statistics, 3.5 million housing units must be built by 2030. You also said this. This is a staggering number. How can this be achieved?
You think that eliminating the goods and services tax would be a good measure. How will this help lower a tenant's rent? How will this affect affordability over the long term?