Mr. Speaker, I thank my brilliant and esteemed colleague from Mirabel for his speech.
The housing shortage is affecting everyone throughout Quebec and Canada. It is a major problem. A whole series of measures is required to remedy it.
Yes, a 1% property tax for non-resident owners of underused housing is more than marginal. It is symbolic, and this level of government has no business collecting it, at least not without the co-operation of the provinces.
The problem is that there is not enough housing. The government really needs to make up for all the lost time and, most importantly, build more social housing.
Once again, Ottawa abandoned social housing back in the 1990s, and today we are paying the price many times over. We are now seeing where decades and decades of underinvestment has led.