A couple of times during your testimony, you mentioned that these sites were used and abused decades ago. I'll use the Hamilton airport scenario as an example. The records just don't exist in terms of trying to find out who did what way back when. It's an airport in the middle of a farmer's field. We know that there was a training facility there, and we have people who used to work there who testified on our behalf, who said that these activities occurred when the federal government owned the property.
Again, non-profits don't have the ability to go back in time. They won't be able to do their due diligence in terms of hiring firms to go out and find that information. I understand that we can only deal with the information that we have in hand at the time when those land transfers take place. However, I think it's incumbent on the federal government to take responsibility for some of these legacy issues that come up and are a surprise.
I come from Hamilton. We've used and abused many of our waterfront lands for industrial purposes for good reason. The steel that we built in Hamilton has built not just our city, our province, but our country and many other parts of the world, but there are surprises that come up.
I'm looking to you for some kind of hope that there's an opportunity to change the legislation so that it doesn't make non-profit housing providers jump through hoops in order to get the compensation they deserve when a surprise comes up. I know you're not lawyers. Everyone's trying to deal with risk and those issues that come with it, and sometimes there's a hefty price tag. The current system doesn't work for many, and I'm just looking for recommendations that might improve the legislation that we have now so that others don't have to face the same.