I'm very pleased to report on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's progress with Infrastructure Canada to respond to the Auditor General's report.
CMHC is responsible for $32.8 billion of government investment in various programs over 12 years under the investing in Canada plan. Of these allocated funds, over $13 billion has been spent so far. This represents more than 23,000 approved projects, with over 16,000 of them already completed.
We have taken many steps to improve the transparency and clarity of reporting on the housing-related elements of the plan.
We have also collaborated with Infrastructure Canada to streamline and simplify the expected-results statements so that they line up more clearly with the investment streams and relate more directly to actual outcomes.
As a result, CMHC now falls under Expected Result 4: “Social infrastructure in Canadian communities is improved.”
CMHC was contributing to this result well before the introduction of our national housing strategy in 2017, and before the development of the investing in Canada plan. We are happy to report that our older programs are now included in our reporting for the plan.
CMHC is committed to being an open and client-focused organization that the people of this country can trust. Beyond the reporting done under the investing in Canada plan, each quarter we report on the progress of our national housing strategy initiatives, many of which are also included in the plan.
This progress is reported on our Place to Call Home website. It includes the funding amount for each initiative, its target in terms of housing units or other benefits, the funding committed and the results achieved. The site also offers stories of individuals who have been helped by our programming. These are people like Lianne Leger, a recent university graduate who was able to make a home for herself in Whitehorse, thanks to the first-time homebuyer initiative, and Canadian Forces veteran Bill Beaton, who went from being homeless to living in Veterans' House, a supportive housing facility constructed with funding from our national housing co-investment fund.
These results depend, in large part, on our working relationships with the provinces and territories, with whom we have collaborated to commit more than 13,000 new units and 160,000 repaired units, as well as with developers and others in the housing sector. We are also putting greater effort into improving our application processes and other elements of the client experience.
Ultimately, these efforts toward collaboration and the transparency and usability of our programs are all in the service of our real goal: to give more Canadians a place to call home.
Again, I thank the Auditor General’s office for their guidance in helping us improve the transparency and clarity of our reporting.
I thank you for the opportunity to speak on this matter, Mr. Chair. I’m very happy to take any questions from committee members.