Yes, I agree because we have a lot of witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be back at the HUMA committee, my favourite committee.
A number of witnesses made the point about the accelerator fund focusing on major cities, and that was our impression, too, when the Minister came here and made the comments. However, then the budget said that the fund would also include rural areas. There have been a lot of questions regarding how this program will run, who's eligible and how the application process will work. I wanted to make sure that all witnesses were on the same page with what we're hearing about this fund as well.
We're now constantly reminding the government that a reason Canada has a housing crisis is that we have a supply issue, which so many of you spoke about. Scotiabank has said that Canada needs 1.8 million new homes built in a year to keep up with demand. A report from CIBC just yesterday said that housing supply numbers derived by the CMHC are “grossly undercounted”. The report also said that the construction industry doesn't have the capacity to meet the government's targets.
That said, I'm not sure if you've seen the report, Mr. Lee, but I'll start with you. Would you agree with the statement by the CIBC that the construction industry won't be able to keep up with these targets?