Madam Speaker, during the recent election, many issues were raised by the great people of Vancouver Kingsway, but none came up more often than the housing crisis. To respond to this, I recently held a town hall to focus on one concrete measure to provide affordable homes to Canadians: co-op housing. This was born out of my visits to the many thriving co-ops in my riding that were built through the federal co-op housing program of the 1970s and 1980s.
I was joined by several outstanding members of our community who shared their experience, knowledge and vision as to how we can expand this incredibly successful housing model into the 21st century. Bernie Foyle of Still Creek Co-op, Cassia Kantrow of Trout Lake Co-op and Nancy Hannum of Falls Creek Co-op provided their first-hand perspectives, and UBC professor Patrick Condon lent excellent economic advice.
What is clear is that we can and we must get all levels of governments working together now to build many more of these secure, affordable, community-building gems.