Mr. Chairman, I am glad the hon. member has mentioned the quality of life report again, because he deserves a great deal of credit for how this has all turned out, for the production of that report and for the many measures that have been put into effect. He was chairman of the committee at the time. He was a good chair. It is too bad that party voted against the report. It is too bad those members do not spend more time focusing on it.
The quality of life report is an indication of the government's commitment to improve the quality of life for our personnel. There are many measures we have taken. We have completed 68 out of the 89 recommendations. There are others that are in the stream. Members look for evidence of what we have done to help the Canadian forces and that is certainly very strong evidence, but we are not stopping there. We know that there are other things to do. We know we need other resources, for more equipment, for training and education and many other things. It takes all of these things to make the military a success, but I think we have had the right priority in starting with the strong measures that we put into effect with respect to pay, benefits, health, housing, et cetera, which are all part of the quality of life report. The hon. member deserves a lot of credit for that.
With regard to the amount of money that has gone into the upgrade of the housing, I cannot tell him offhand where the start is and where the finish is, but I can tell him what is in between and it is $186 million, which over five years is helping to provide for a lot of upgrades. There were a lot of horror stories at the time that he was in Edmonton and in other places. He heard from people who were in some of these accommodations with flooded basements and all sorts of drafty conditions, conditions that were very unsuitable for families. However, $186 million has helped to correct a lot of that.
Most of the people who work for the Canadian forces live in the market economy and live in housing that is not part of the military operations. About 70% is in that category now but certainly for the 30% who still do live on bases, who live in our quarters, there has been substantial improvement. I am not saying that it is all done yet. There still is more work to be done but we have come a long way. We have come a long way in all the quality of life measures.
On the Canadian Forces Housing Agency, we have looked at different possibilities of how to structure it in a way such that it could buy and sell land and by doing that be able to work out the economics of its portfolio without being a further burden on the tax base, while being able to provide for the needs of the Canadian forces housing. That, I think, is moving along the progression of a special operating agency. I think some of those elements will be given to the agency but I cannot say specifically at this time just how many of them. However, it is able to advance its program and get the job done and that is important.