The reason I'm here is that.... If this bill is going to go ahead, please include municipalities in the consultation, because it's so critical. In order to achieve the objectives, prairie municipalities need to be at the table, because this relates to prairie provinces.
Retrofitting existing buildings and repurposing them will help us achieve a number of objectives. First of all, it is a job creator. It ends up creating thousands and thousands of jobs for tradespeople in the local communities where those buildings are being retrofitted.
Second, we have a huge crisis in affordable housing in the prairie provinces, including Edmonton. We have close to 70,000 Edmontonian families that are in need of affordable rental housing, so we can repurpose some of these buildings into more affordable rental buildings.
The third component is to help us reduce emissions, so this is a win-win situation on many fronts. This is not only a small amount of emissions, but a significant amount of emissions, which will allow our communities to be net-zero by 2050, which is the federal goal.
It's local jobs, more affordable housing and a reduction in emissions, and it also helps spur innovation in the construction sector. As you give predictability to the construction industry that over time a certain amount of resources from each order of government will be available, we can leverage those by working with the private sector to expand the work and give that predictability over the long term to foster innovation in the construction sector. This is a win-win situation.