Thank you for that important question.
First of all, this is not the only program that will result in more affordable rental housing. We actually have a much bigger program, called the rental construction financing initiative, which has grown over the years. It is now projected to invest $25 billion over a number of years to ensure that we are incentivizing the building of more rental units across the country.
In budget 2022, that program will double the requirement for the number of affordable units, from 20% to 40%. That means that more affordable rental units will be in the market, on top of more rental units—period.
Why is the Government of Canada incentivizing the building of more rental units? It's because developers mostly don't tend to build for the rental market. They tend to build for ownership. There's a shortage of rental units across Canada. Our government has recognized that the federal government has a role in encouraging more rental units being built.
If I could come back to the housing accelerator fund, one way it will lead to more rental units is the encouragement and incentivizing of densification and inclusionary zoning. When you allow more units to be built within the same amount of land, you unlock more rental housing supply.
There are municipalities, for example, some mayors I met recently, who are moving toward allowing more units within a single family home. The idea behind that is to allow the owner of a large single-family unit with a huge backyard to be able to build up to five units and allow some of those units to be rented, therefore tripling or quadrupling the rental—