Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for the invitation.
I'm the CEO of UTILE, a social economy enterprise that builds and manages affordable student housing in Quebec. Today, we have over 750 units already built in the past five years. Our team of around 50 people is currently working on another 1,000 units. We're a major partner of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, which has helped fund almost all our projects. This makes us one of Canada's leading non‑market housing developers.
I should note that we carried out one of the largest modular prefabrication projects in eastern Canada. Last year, we built 155 units in Rimouski using these modern methods. UTILE readily welcomes Bill C‑20, given the urgent need to implement Build Canada Homes, especially now that the CMHC has less leverage in affordable housing owing to the end of the affordable housing fund.
In recent years, Canada's national housing strategy has really helped create significant momentum in the non‑profit and affordable housing sector. We currently aren't alone in having a large stock of tens of thousands of units whose funding scenario remains uncertain given the end of the affordable housing fund.
The Build Canada Homes program is vital to maintaining the momentum and pace of affordable housing construction in Canada. If this program fails to hit its stride quickly, we risk losing some of these projects.
I would also like to point out the need, in recent years, to explicitly integrate student housing into federal government policies. This approach is a key solution to Canada's housing crisis. It helps to densify areas already served by public transit, to take action in urban areas and to increase supply at a lower cost, while freeing up for families rental units that would otherwise be occupied by student households.
During the implementation of Bill C‑20 and Build Canada Homes, we believe that all policies must explicitly maintain the openness and integration of student housing, including off‑campus student housing. This must remain part of the continuum of solutions for housing in Canada in the years to come.
I'll give the rest of my time to Mr. Pelletier.