Yes, I can.
Thanks for having me back today, and thanks for the question.
It's having an extremely detrimental impact right now. There are many reports—including from CMHC and the Urban Development Institute, to name a couple—that have concluded that various forms of fees, levies and taxation from all levels of government are up to 30% of the cost of new housing. In some cases, this is now three times what the private sector is making in taking the risk and trying to build new housing. These new costs are absolutely stifling our industry right now. They are curbing new starts, which are notably down.
We are calling for an analysis of how government is taxing new housing. We're also calling for in-stream protection from new fees and charges. We don't understand. There's no business in the world where it would be acceptable to have fees and charges rising after you've made an investment decision based on all of the information when you make that decision, including what the taxation regime is, what the development fees are and community amenity contributions. It's something that has become increasingly alarming.
We're looking at Metro Vancouver, which is our regional government here. They've increased their fees 1,900%. You probably saw the current federal housing minister Sean Fraser come out on Twitter against that. This was unprecedented and quite welcome in our industry. These fees are absolutely, totally killing development right now.