I think you framed it incredibly well. The need to expedite approvals is almost immune from the competitive nature of the costs you described—the services and materials provided to develop housing from the private sector, the government fees and the taxes levied.
We need to bring that discipline or competitive nature into the discourse as we look at the other side of the costs that are added. I can't underestimate the impact of those costs and the fact they have not adjusted to the demands of the industry as others have, but just gone in that one direction I described earlier.
I think the role the federal government can play in providing incentives to municipalities, through the provinces—to reduce development charges, remove the HST and expedite approvals—is to focus on starts and outcomes, because you can't live in an approval. You have to live in a built house.
That must come with a recognition of the need to change those costs and correct their current upward spiral. My perspective is thus to focus on disciplining the impact of those government fees and taxes on new buildings.