Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I guess mine is more of a comment than anything else.
When we look at the numbers, and also the numbers we got from Statistics Canada and comments made by my colleagues, the numbers are very clear that unless you make greater investments now, you cannot meet the needs of the housing requirements for aboriginal communities.
From the brief, I know that Nunavut is probably the territory that has the most need. For the number of dollars, you're always going to get fewer houses there because the costs are higher. For the x number of dollars that you can build maybe 10 houses, you're only going to build five in Nunavut because of the extra costs.
I appreciate the information that you gave. I know that some of the questions that were asked are really political questions that can be answered only by the minister--and political will by a government to invest the right number of dollars. I appreciate where you're coming from, and I know that housing has improved.
I worked in the housing sector as manager of social housing. I understand that unless you get more investment to meet the growing needs, you can't catch up. A one-time investment is not going to do it. It has to be a continual and greater number each year just because of the facts. The statistics state that. I'm sure you're all going to agree that unless you're putting in more now than is needed, you're never going to catch up. That's reality. I'm sure no one can refute that.
My push is that there has to be the proper investment and the proper resources. It's a basic need. It's a blot on Canada's international standing to have that disparity between aboriginal communities and the rest of the country. So this is more a comment than anything else: unless we invest more today, we're never going to catch up.
I know there was a question by Anita on the fee simple, and there was no time for an answer.