You don't have to answer that. That's some quick math. I didn't do it very quickly myself. Parker did it for me.
That's a lot of homes. We have a crisis, not just in housing but in labour. There are not enough people to build these homes. We're struggling there. We have a situation where the affordability situation in this country is only getting worse. In fact, RBC just reported in their most recent report that it has never been so unaffordable to buy a home in this country.
However, when this government came into office it came up with this national housing strategy, Minister. You weren't the minister at the time, but I'm sure you remember there was great fanfare. This was a generational change in housing. It was going to be the first ever. You just described it as the first-ever truly national housing strategy, yet the situation today is worse than it has ever been.
The number of homeless people in Toronto has gone up dramatically. The number of homeless people who have died in Toronto doubled year over year. The number of young people who have given up the hope of ever even owning a home is nine out of 10 right now in this country.
The CMHC has received all kinds of funds for these various different programs that they deliver in the national housing strategy. We have found out from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, though, that for three or four of those programs they hadn't even spent half of their allocated funding over the first three years of the program. Now, of course, we're looking for more money for a new program, yet the situation isn't improving.
I'm wondering how you can't agree that we're in a crisis in this country. The number of people who are homeless is going up. The tent cities are growing. The number of people who have given up on the dream of owning a home continues to go up. We're desperately short of purpose-built rentals in this country.
Then, of course, we also heard from the Auditor General that the CMHC and Infrastructure Canada on their various different housing programs weren't exactly sure if their programs were even working. In fact, when we asked the Auditor General about that, if there is someone who is going to be coordinating this effort, she reported back to us that she was actually disappointed to report that the response back was that by the end of this year there would be a champion who would actually coordinate the efforts of these agencies.
Your government has committed $70 billion. We're just about to give you a bunch more. The situation is worse than it has ever been. The number of people dying in homeless shelters is growing. How can you not see that as a crisis?