Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to respond to the member opposite.
There are three very important points I want to make about Canada's national housing strategy.
First, the homelessness partnering strategy money has a new definition for rural homelessness. It is also enrolling new communities so we can move prevention upstream and into the rural communities from which much of the homelessness problem emanates.
Second, the co-investment fund does not require a set contribution from the province. It must involve the municipalities, but the municipalities are not required to provide matching dollars to receive these funds. They are simply there to tie them into municipal programs to make sure we get the housing built.
The final point, which I think is critical to this, is that the dollars that are set aside for this have already started to be spent. Twelve billion dollars have already been spent prior to the announcement of the national housing strategy. Our first two budgets pushed the housing strategy into communities right across the country, and the next 10 years adds on top of that. We have promised well more than $40 billion, and we have already spent well more than $12 billion.