Mr. Speaker, the Liberals promised to sell surplus government properties in order to build 4,000 housing units by 2028, but a scathing report from the Auditor General showed that, after five years, they had built only 309 of those units and are on pace to build only about 12% of the 4,000 they promised. This is of particular concern now because Canadians are facing a housing crisis, and the Liberal government, according to the Auditor General, is sitting on 5.9 million square feet of space that could be utilized for housing development. We see this right across the country, but certainly in northwestern Ontario. We are feeling that significant effect of the housing shortage.
I have heard from many people across our region who are struggling to find a place to live, as well as many who cannot afford their first and last month's rent to even get into a new place. I have heard from some constituents, who have reached out to me indicating that they have to move out of the place they are currently living in but cannot afford or find something suitable for them to move into and are actually facing homelessness.
I would also note that there is a great economic cost to this housing crisis. Many employers in my district are struggling to find workers nearby. They are looking for people to move in from around the country and, frankly, around the world, but that is not able to happen, because people cannot find places to live to be able to work in northwestern Ontario. It has come to the point now that businesses and other organizations are actually purchasing housing themselves in order to be able to house their employees and make that part of the package when making a job offer.
As well, more broadly, we know that nearly half of Canadians are very concerned about housing affordability because of the rising costs of housing and rent, and nearly 60% of Canadians aged 20 to 35 have been reported to be experiencing housing affordability challenges. Just today, in fact, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released new estimates on Canada's housing supply gaps, and it estimates, in the government's own words, that returning to the housing affordability levels of 2019 would require the government to build between 430,000 and 480,000 new housing units over the next decade. This is not even going back to 2015, but just to 2019. This means that Canada needs to double the number of homes it builds each year to restore that affordability level. That is a big goal. We have seen reports from the TD Bank indicating that housing starts are actually going to decline, and so we are on the wrong track.
I would add that the Conservatives have put forward a plan. We did so in the last Parliament, over the election campaign, and we still have the plan, which is truly the only real plan to get housing built. We have seen nothing from the government but platitudes. It will not even bring forward a budget that includes a plan for housing. Conservatives are calling for the government to prioritize a plan to build 2.3 million new homes over the next five years by axing the GST on new homes; incentivizing municipalities to cut red tape and development taxes; and, of course, to the root of my question, selling federal properties to developers who will be able to help build more affordable housing more quickly.
When will the Liberals finally keep the promise they made to Canadians so that they can free up that housing development and get more homes built across the country?