Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Minister, you're on record as saying that housing is in a crisis. At this committee, a few months ago, you agreed that we have a crisis on our hands. Your housing accelerator fund is part of a response to that.
My concern with it is that just trying to spend our way out of the crisis is not really going to work, and it's proving that it's not working because it's making things more expensive. It's more expensive to build.
Ideologically, the Liberals want to spend their way out of the crisis, but there are all kinds of examples, such as the federal lands initiative, where the long, arduous process for a piece of property to be declared surplus by the government doesn't really quite capture the need. It takes too long, for one, and then the concept of something being surplus....
I'll give you an example of a post office in Burnaby. I was standing next to it. It was surrounded by residential towers. It was built in the sixties. The condition of it is listed as “poor”. The post office keeps losing money. The city wanted it for a developer to build a new tower there. They would give them space on the main floor for a new post office. The response was, “Well, it's not surplus.” Is that the highest and best use?
Are you familiar with the concept of “highest and best use” in planning, Minister?