Mr. Speaker, I want to thank and congratulate the hon. member because I think those are very appropriate and very sound questions that should be raised on the floor of the House of Commons.
First of all, I agree with my colleague that this should not be interpreted as subsidies. We should look at it as investment. I could not agree with her more.
I cannot and will not try to rewrite history in terms of the amount of moneys which has gone to the province of Quebec. There are some rationales which have been given to me as to why Ontario, for instance, which has a bigger population and higher costs in terms of social housing, has received more and Quebec has received less.
I can assure the hon. member, who has raised a fundamental question of equity, that under this administration Quebec will get its fair share. I can assure the hon. member of that.
The hon. member made reference to a number of other issues. However, it should be noted that the Government of Canada will also be providing $5 million over the next four years in financial assistance for unique, non-profit housing co-operatives in the southwest of Montreal. The hon. member probably knows that. This was done as a pilot project and we are continuing with that particular funding.
I want the hon. member to know as well that in terms of the units in the province of Quebec, she knows and I know that the predominance of rental units as opposed to new free standing units is greater in the province of Quebec than anywhere else in the country. Hence, we will work closely with the Quebec government, as I indicated in my earlier remarks, in terms of providing moneys for renovations to that social housing stock.
We will also work closely with the Government of Quebec and stakeholders in that province as well as in other provinces to see whether there are creative ways we can put money into projects to provide the kinds of new housing or renovated housing to house Canadians.
I do not want to mislead the hon. member in thinking that there is a Santa Claus who sits two seats down from me, the Minister of Finance, who will walk in on February 22 and say to the people of Canada that he has a bag of goodies and this is what he is going to do.
It is important to be fiscally responsible federally, provincially, municipally, in non-profit organizations and the private sector so that we can arrive at expenditures which meet our objective which is to provide affordable, reasonable and healthy housing for Canadians.