Mr. Speaker, there is a whole lot to correct there, starting with the fact that it was a $15-million announcement, not a $12-million announcement. This was done without any suggestion from the NDP that money was needed. I would further add that it is not our government that allowed those agreements to expire; the previous Conservative government did. While we have picked up all other agreements in the meantime through the national housing strategy, we have now announced an interim measure to re-enrol lapsed agreements in the provinces identified and have committed to enrolling all of them in the upcoming budget.
All of that said, the indigenous housing program to which the member speaks of, which is identified as a key core need in the national housing strategy, is currently being studied at committee after we made a commitment in the throne speech to fulfill the commitment to deliver an indigenous-led urban, rural and northern housing strategy. That work is under way and those funding opportunities are under way.
I wish the member opposite had attended committee to hear the Parliamentary Budget Officer answer questions. He said the bulk of the funding is transferred by the federal government to provincial governments, but he has failed to provide us with the details of exactly how that has impacted indigenous households, 53% of which live in subsidized units. Those dollars are funded through a provincial-federal accord, which is also accomplished under the national housing strategy.
The national housing strategy now stands at $70 billion, and it is immediately addressing needs through a rapid housing initiative, with a $1-billion investment to get more than 3,000 units of housing into the hands of housing providers across the country to meet the needs of the homeless. We are on the verge of launching the next three chapters of the national housing strategy, which are to fortify the co-op sector; build the urban, rural and northern indigenous housing stream; and fulfill our commitment to end chronic homelessness in this country.
I will add one last thing to this point, and it is very critical. What is going on in Vancouver East is serious, and for the member opposite to bring issues to our attention on a daily basis is good work on her part to represent the needs of her constituents. She says we are walking away from the commitments we are making and are not addressing them, and she characterizes them as insufficient. That is fine insofar as we need to do more, as I will never disagree that more is better. However, to pretend that we have not done what we said is wrong, and to pretend that we did not take the initiative to fix the co-op sector that had lapsed is wrong as well.
In the question she asked that led to this late show discussion, she suggested it was just end-of-year funding. It is not. It is bridge funding to get to a permanent solution. She criticized us for having it end in 2028. The reality is we will put the entire co-op sector into one funding envelope so that the practice the Conservatives had of allowing operating agreements to expire in the middle of the night will, thankfully, come to an end in this country.
The co-op sector is stronger because of our government and stronger because of the national housing strategy, and I really wish the NDP would help us build it instead of just criticizing it.