Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the ministers and officials for being at the committee today.
I want to jump right in. The Bank of Canada has said that investing in community housing, social housing and co-op housing is not inflationary spending. There are a multitude of reports. The Scotiabank report and the Bank of Montreal report, among others, have indicated that Canada is way behind the eight ball with respect to our social housing stock. We are at about 3.5%, and it's not even half of what the other G7 countries are at.
To that end, people are calling for the government to invest in social housing to at least bring us to the G7 average, which is 1.3 billion units. Others, including the housing advocate, are suggesting that we should bring our social housing stock up to 20%.
We know that the Conservatives do not believe in social housing, because their leader has already said on the public record that social housing is “a Soviet-style takeover of housing.” I believe that the minister does not believe that.
To that end, will the government be investing in social housing to at least the level of doubling it, as community advocates are calling for?