Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to rise and speak on a very important issue for the residents of Hamilton Centre: the financialization of housing. I want to give the hon. member the opportunity to respond because he suggested that, in this current context, it is not the government's role to build housing. If he knows the Kingston workers' history project in his own riding, he would be able to visit the site and see what the history of the CMHC was.
It was not always the case that the CMHC was simply an insurance company for big developers. In fact, it started out of the wartime homes project, which, in Kingston, built 250 homes in his community after World War II.
I invite the hon. member to rise. He does not have to cite his party's policy, but perhaps he could envision a bigger, bolder role for the definancialization of housing. In this, the federal government could meet the scale and scope of the crisis, actually go back to its roots and build affordable homes, as they did with the little strawberry box housing they have in both Kingston and Hamilton Centre. I am going to ask him to stand up and just dream a little bit bigger today.