Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses. The work you are doing is very much needed and very much appreciated.
I'll address my first question to Ms. Hannaburg.
You spoke about housing. We hear this continuously. I hear it in my riding. I hear it when I speak to survivors of intimate partner violence and survivors of human trafficking. I'm a little confused, so maybe you could help me out here.
This Liberal government promised to build 500,000 homes. They pledged to build them. According to CMHC, the new estimate shows that we need to increase that. It doesn't appear to be happening. The new estimate shows that Canada housing starts need to rise between 417,000 and 469,000 per year to restore affordability to pre-2020 levels by 2036. Instead, housing starts under this government are projected to fall from over 250,000 to as low as 212,000 by 2028. This comes as our population growth is expected to recover across most major cities, increasing demand for housing and the need to build more.
The report shows that high construction costs and difficult financing conditions are making it harder to build new homes. Weak condominium sales continue to discourage new developers from building condominiums. Housing construction has fallen sharply in major cities, such as Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal. Compared with last year, the housing supply gap has grown larger in Montreal and Ottawa. It remains the same in Vancouver. This is a report from CMHC.
I heard you speak about women trying to flee, but they're afraid to do so, because there isn't ample shelter or there isn't ample housing. It's affordability, finance and a whole gamut of situations. How can we turn that around quicker? I understand that this government talks about building more homes, but that's not happening. What suggestion do you have to speed up this process?