Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I heard a lot of talk about partnerships. There's the housing accelerator fund, which I know the Liberals would love to pretend is working.
I'm going to give you some data here that I suspect you probably already have.
Since the housing accelerator fund was launched, the number of homes permitted has gone up only 1.8% compared to the same time period previous to that. According to CMHC data, in municipalities over 10,000 people, housing starts are basically flat. From January to October 2023, there were about 187,000 starts. In the same time period—January to October—in 2024, there were 188,000, so starts have basically stopped as well.
The government is committed to getting 3.8 million new homes constructed by 2031. That's two million more than what's already been forecast and what the CMHC has said we need to do to get back to affordability. We have all these programs and all these funds, billions of dollars—which is borrowed money, I would add—that are supposed to speed up the construction of homes, and it's actually not working. In fact, in larger cities, starts are plummeting. I gave you some data on some of these cities.
Can you speak to me about these secret agreements with municipalities? We've asked to see these agreements with municipalities. We'll use Toronto as an example. There was $471 million. Development charges were raised by 42%, and housing starts are down 40%.
Are there any criteria in these agreements related to the cost to build in these municipalities?