Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, any amendment I've moved here today is in keeping with amendments I've introduced previously, and I think I can speak for colleagues on this side that we do so with sincerity.
It's not as if we think the motion presented by the Conservatives through Ms. Gray is not substantive; there is some substance there. We're simply trying to strengthen it to ensure that we have the ability to have a meeting that allows us to formulate serious and focused recommendations that will ultimately be put to the government.That's the goal.
I'm surprised that the Conservatives did not include a focus on affordable housing and emphasize it. The importance of non-market housing—co-op housing, rent-geared-to-income housing and all of these types of housing, which thousands of Canadians rely upon—are crucial.
In fact, a few months ago—and I think this merits emphasis, Mr. Chair—the Conservative leader talked about co-ops as “Soviet-style” housing. How someone could describe that type of model in those terms is beyond me. There are hundreds of thousands of Canadians who live in co-op housing. It's an alternative model of housing. It's a very interesting one, and it's one that I think can go a long way to alleviating a genuine crisis.
Mr. Aitchison said that I don't use that word because I'm somehow afraid to use it. No, that's not the case at all. We are living in a very challenging situation. It's one that amounts to a crisis. That's why the government has acted through the national housing strategy. More than 70,000 people, I think, at last count, who were either on the street or very close to living on the street now have a roof over their heads, quite often with vital wraparound supports that go a long way toward ensuring that they make a positive transition to a meaningful, dignified life.
At this committee in particular, a committee whose mandate is quite broad in its reach, if we're going to achieve anything on those issues and this specific issue of housing, we have to find ways to work together, so why a party—the official opposition, no less—would dismiss co-op housing as “Soviet-style” housing is beyond me. There is that.
On the importance of affordable housing more generally, let's think about it in these terms. Rent-geared-to-income housing and the non-market models that are there are all quite crucial to addressing the crisis at hand. I would like to hear from the CMHC their thoughts on those things. Unfortunately, we won't really have the ability to do that in substantive terms, because it's led by an interim CEO now. I'm not sure about you, Mr. Chair, but when I'm trying to get to the bottom of something, I don't want to talk to the interim head of an organization; I want to talk, in this case, to the incoming new permanent CEO. If they're not permanent, you can take my point: I want the new appointee, not the interim leader. I think that is vital if we're going to be serious about the work we're doing in providing recommendations to the government.
We have a lot of abilities at this committee. Mr. Aitchison was just pointing out before the suspension the municipal background of my colleague to my right, who was a city councillor in Hamilton. Mr. Aitchison was the mayor of a community in northern Ontario, if I'm not mistaken. Let's harness that experience—and those are just two examples—and put that experience to good use and ensure that we can formulate recommendations that are truly in keeping with what this committee should be doing. Instead, I find that the Conservatives in particular are continuing to propose—this is not true of the Bloc and this is not true of the NDP—motions at this committee that won't get us anywhere.
The minister responsible for housing has appeared at this committee multiple times. In fact, part of me wants to support the motion of Ms. Gray, because in previous appearances, the minister has done extremely well to highlight not just the actions of the government, but the contradictions in the Conservative approach.
They want more housing built, but they want to tax builders, for example. They say that they're for affordable housing and for different types of housing, but they go after co-op housing in the way that I've already described. As well, when in office, they never did anything serious to advance affordable housing in the country. That is something, I think, that can't be overlooked.
All of these things, Mr. Chair, present me with questions about the Conservative approach. I have said that they've been sincere in raising motions, but as I talk here and think about it and further consider it, I see that there are holes in the approach. How seriously can you take an approach that says to have the same old meeting, time and again, that we've already had in the middle of a housing crisis, when we know that this type of meeting is not going to do anything to provide strong recommendations that can move us forward in the way that we need to see?
Mr. Chair, I'm not sure whether you've had a chance to see the news, but just today it was announced that universities can actually now take out low-interest loans.
