Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I’m very happy to be meeting with you today on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples.
First of all, I would like to thank the committee for the invitation. We are always very happy to participate in this very important part of the democratic process and to speak about the work we're doing at CMHC.
I understand that timing issues made it impossible for us to testify here last week, and I would like to apologize for that. We never shy away from committee appearances. Just last week, I met with the public accounts committee, and next week I’ll be back at this committee with the minister.
As Canada's national housing agency, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is pleased to be delivering the national housing strategy.
This 10‑year plan is Canada's first national, comprehensive strategy to address housing unaffordability. It includes a suite of programs designed primarily to create more housing supply. It focuses first and foremost on the most vulnerable Canadians. But it covers the continuum of housing, for example shelters, community housing, market rentals and home ownership.
At CMHC, we leverage our close partnerships with the housing sector and all orders of government to make sure federal investments are optimized for the greatest impact.
We're continually improving our programs based on feedback from our partners. For example, we recently streamlined the process of our national housing co‑investment fund and reduced the turnaround time for applications by 50%.
We’ve applied lessons learned to new programs, like the rapid housing initiative. This highly successful program is expected to quickly create more than 14,500 units for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
CMHC has continuously met the national housing strategy’s ambitious targets, and we’ve added new programs as conditions and needs have continued to evolve.
The result is that to date we have made more than $30.28 billion in financial commitments to support the creation and repair of 387,000 units, 170,000 of which are currently under construction or completed, and the continuing availability of more than 38,000 community housing units for which operating agreements expired. These indicators are publicly available on our website.
We are committed to continually improving our reporting to ensure that public investments are delivering real impact to Canadians who need it most. At the same time, we continue to gather and share information on the housing environment and housing needs of all Canadians.
The numbers I've just cited demonstrate our impact, but so do the stories of the people who now have a home as a result of this work, including people like Emily from Vancouver, who was homeless and struggled with addictions. She found a home at Union Gospel Mission’s Women & Families Centre, and she says the support she received there changed her life. The centre was built with funding from the national housing coinvestment fund.
Another example is Bill, a Canadian Forces veteran in Ottawa. Bill went from being homeless to living in Veterans' House, a supportive-housing facility at the former CFB Rockcliffe air base. That project was also financed by the coinvestment fund.
There are also the seniors and the people living with disabilities or with mental health issues in Gravenhurst, who will soon have a home at the brand new Alexander Retirement Care Facility, again, thanks to the coinvestment fund.
It is clear from stories like this that the national housing strategy is making a difference in the lives of Canadians, but this is not to say that there isn't much more that needs to be done to address Canada’s housing challenges, and government can’t do it alone. There simply aren’t the resources in government to address the housing needs of all Canadians.
Yes, there's definitely a clear role for government at all levels to create more affordable or social housing to ensure that vulnerable people can meet their basic housing needs, but when it comes to solving Canada’s more widespread housing affordability challenges, the impact of federal investments is much more limited.
For example, in Canada, about 95% of rental housing is provided by the private sector, so when we think about housing affordability, the private sector needs to be a part of the solution.
We are very happy to be here today to answer your questions, and we welcome all ideas as to how we can work better together to ensure that everyone in Canada has an affordable, suitable home.
Thank you very much.