That's fine.
Colleagues, it's a pleasure to be here. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas in advance.
It's good to be here again to discuss the supplementary estimates.
The last time I was here, I spent some time going over some measures we were rolling out with a view to building more homes across Canada and helping to address the supply gap that exists.
As a quick reminder, the pillars of the path forward will involve policies designed to make the math work for home builders. That's where measures like the GST being removed from apartment construction come in. It's where the rental construction financing initiative, which provides low-cost loans to builders, comes in. It's where the changes to the Canada mortgage bonds, which are going to reduce the rate of borrowing for builders, come in.
The second pillar is changing the way cities build homes. We've had significant success, including agreements with municipalities across Canada that are going to fundamentally change the way they permit and zone for more housing to be built near transit, near post-secondary institutions and near opportunities and services that people need.
The third pillar was really directly investing in community housing, housing for low-income families who would not otherwise have a place to live. There are a number of ways we do that, including measures that were recapitalized in the recent fall economic statement through the affordable housing fund. We have a history of doing this through different programs, such as the rapid housing initiative, the co-investment fund and others, over the course of the past number of years.
The next pillar is focusing on growing the productive capacity of the Canadian workforce. You will have seen in the fall economic statement certain measures targeting labour mobility, for example. Going forward, you should expect to see a continued desire to invest in the skilled trades to build more homes, as well as in targeted immigration programs to attract the workers we need and we do not have currently, and importantly, to help industry tool up to build more homes and factories.
We also need to continue to focus on some of society's most vulnerable by investing in local efforts that will be led typically by municipal governments or organizations on the ground to address homelessness across Canada.
Finally, there are new measures we put in place to help people stay in, or get into, the market when it comes to home ownership. I'm thinking, for example, of the first home savings account, which has now seen more than 300,000 people, disproportionately young people, sign up to take advantage of a tax-free opportunity to get into the market, or of the recent inclusion of the Canadian mortgage charter, outlining what consumers ought to be entitled to when they deal with their financial institutions.
One thing to tie this back to the reason we're here is that it takes investment to achieve each of those policy outcomes that I think we would all like to see. The measures we put in place go through a parliamentary process to determine whether we're actually going to back the policy commitments with funding. What transpired last week in the House of Commons was a series of votes on a number of different measures designed to properly fund some of the initiatives included in the housing plan.
For example, direct investments in affordable housing through the co-investment fund and the rapid housing initiative were deliberately separated and voted on. The same is true about our low-cost financing programs that get more homes built. It is also true for shelters and transition housing, which are providing support to some of the most vulnerable, women and children in particular, and it included funding directly for veteran homelessness.
You can imagine, Chair, my disappointment, though perhaps not my surprise, when I saw that the Conservative Party made a point to specifically vote down each of those measures. Thankfully, we garnered support from other parties in the House of Commons, and we're able to move forward with the funds that will allow us to deliver on some of those very specific policy ideas.
In the interest of time, Mr. Chair, I'll leave my comments there, but rest assured, I'll be prepared to take whatever questions committee members may have.
Thank you.