Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the representatives from CMHC for being here today.
My first question ties into the national housing coinvestment fund initiative. The average rental price of units approved under the national housing coinvestment fund was higher than 30% of before-tax household income in several of the provinces and territories. The Auditor General, in fact, stated, “Having affordability criteria linked to market rent will continue to produce housing that is unaffordable to many of these groups.”
My question is, why did the national housing coinvestment fund use a different affordability measure—based on 80% of the average market rent—from the criteria used by the national housing strategy overall, which uses 30% of a household's before-tax income? Who made that decision?