When I first heard the notion that we should remove the GST to build more apartments, my first reaction was that we might want to have some affordability criteria. I spent about five minutes digging into the issue before I realized how wrong that would have been.
When we actually address the supply challenge more broadly, it's one of the biggest things we can do to reduce, over time, the cost of homes. In fact, one of the developers mentioned by my colleague, as part of the 5,000 units, has one project that is 43% affordable. The way that most modern housing developments are being built in cities today involves a mix, in which you have some market homes and some non-market homes. I don't want to be building cheap homes in a bad part of town that are exclusively for low-income families, where they don't have access to the services they need. I want them to be integrated into communities and have full participation, living alongside people from different income backgrounds.
In addition to removing the GST to boost supply and having mixed developments, I also want to see continued direct support for non-market housing. We have existing programs like the rental construction financing initiative and the national housing co-investment fund. We had the rapid housing initiative through the pandemic. We've done more to build out affordable housing than any government in my lifetime has, and we need to continue to make those kinds of investments, because I agree with you that this is an enormous challenge we need to overcome.