Thank you very much for your testimony here today. I'm also going to focus on the First Nations Market Housing Fund.
Mr. Beaucage, I think what you've described here is as my father would say, that there are many ways to skin a cat. I'm not sure if that's considered politically correct anymore, but we need to look at the housing crisis from many different angles. Some of it requires direct government investment, and certainly that has been done. But I think it's also important that we talk about what the fund was established to do in Budget 2007, in which a $300-million First Nations Market Housing Fund was set up to enhance access to private financing arrangements for on-reserve housing by providing a backstop to private sector loans. This wasn't meant to, as you say, build 3,000 homes. This was meant, essentially, to backstop a much greater number than that.
Your vision statement says that “Every First Nation family has the opportunity to have a home on their own land in a strong community.” I think certainly the government supports that vision, and that's one we share with you. You mentioned the first nations that have taken this up. One of them is in my riding, the Seabird Island Band, where Chief Clem Seymour said, “The Seabird Island Band is looking forward to working with the First Nations Market Housing Fund on another avenue for housing. It has been needed for a long time.”
So the chief in my riding who's participating in this says this is another avenue and that we need to look at other solutions than the status quo. But, again, we are looking at results. We have to look at the results. You said that the rate of growth is promising. When you appeared before the Senate committee you said there were 3,700 housing units. That's a couple of years ago now, or a year and a half ago. Commitments had been made for 3,700 homes. Is that number still accurate? Where are we at in terms of our commitments at this point?