Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his kind words and for his ongoing work in his own community as well.
He raised a very important issue. Housing affordability is a major challenge across the country, I would say. The federal Liberal government back in 1993 cancelled a national affordable housing program. As a result of that, this country lost more than half a million units of affordable housing that would otherwise have been built. Imagine what our communities would look like today if we had those units.
After all these years, the Liberals say that we have a national affordable housing program. The only problem with that is that 90% of that money will not flow until after the next election. I come from the non-profit sector, and to build a housing project, even if we had the money today, it would take four or five years to get that project completed. That is the reality we face.
For the Yazidi families, for the refugee families, for Canadians who are desperate for affordable housing, how can we possibly allow for a program where the Liberals say, “Just wait a minute and after the next election, we'll get going on this,” as though somehow that would address the affordable housing crisis? Come on, let us get on with it.