It is a complex problem. I think there are two elements here. One is this definition of affordability. As the member from Calgary mentioned, it means all things to all people. We don't really know what affordability is. The term “affordable housing” really focuses more on low-income folks and housing affordability is whether or not our kids can afford to buy a house. We really have those two different segments.
I don't think the housing accelerator fund is the right answer for the very low-income people. I think we need to basically increase the funding in the national housing strategy, which is targeted to the specific issues of addressing homelessness and very low-income need.
If the accelerator fund wants to address the second issue of housing affordability for middle income kids trying to get into the housing market and moderate income renters, then we have to look at what kind of incentives we're getting to. The other speaker, Mike, mentioned the issue of size. We had a very similar program in 1975. One thing it created was the assisted rental program. It was municipal incentive grants. The grants were unit-based and they were a specific number. The builders built a whole bunch of bachelor and one-bedroom units. If we actually do want to address the affordability in the rental market, and particularly for families who can't afford to buy, I think the accelerator fund does need to be quite prescriptive. It should say that it will give incentives to municipalities if they approve this type of unit, and certainly family-oriented units for that particular issue.
I think it's probably inappropriate to skew the accelerator fund to address the deep need issues which, as I mentioned, should be done through the national housing strategy.