Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, witnesses, for your attendance today.
Mr. Banks, I really liked your comments related to the whole issue of residential conversions. I think you referenced office towers, in terms of providing an opportunity for government to leverage their assets in providing housing.
I sat as a city councillor for a long time on our municipal non-profit, and we faced many of the challenges the military faces today. We had long wait lists. We had housing stock that was built in the sixties and seventies, and limited resources to fix those units as well as to build new to accommodate those people who were on the wait list.
We had to look for unique ways and opportunities to provide new housing for those people who needed it. One of the things we were forced to do, because we didn't have assistance at the time from other levels of government, was to look at the land holdings we owned and to leverage the equity we had in those lands to provide housing for people.
You've capitalized on that, but you were also very clear in terms of the no privatization line. Can you expand upon that? I ask because those conversions that I referenced at the municipal level happened in partnership, for the most part, with the private sector. I am just hoping you could expand upon your recommendation that we do the conversions, but maybe not in partnership with the private sector.