Thank you to the witnesses for their very informative remarks.
I'm from the Vancouver area, and one of the challenges there is that we have a lot of old-stock rental apartments. Actually, very little has been built since the 1970s. They are purpose-built rentals. In the private sector it seems as though there has been a real tension among those who have invested, who have made the buildings, with rent controls, so they're not willing to do maintenance or improvements. Very little stock has been built since then.
I know there is that tension between those who build it for the private sector and also affordable housing. How do we navigate this tension between providing the affordable housing and at the same time having incentives for the private sector to be involved and to actually invest?
It's easy to say, “The government can do this. The government can do that,” but we want to get the private sector involved and individuals involved in investing, so how can we do that as far as some of the rent controls go and at the same time really incentivize individuals to make affordable housing?
Do you have any ideas? Nobody is jumping in.