Finance committee  There is the National Housing Strategy Act, which says that the federal government's housing policy recognizes that housing is a basic human right as defined under international human rights law and that the government will do what it must to progressively realize that right. I don't see how they can get around not doing something to protect renter households.

Finance committee  That too is a huge issue. A lot of people have taken as an assumption that a lack of supply is the problem. I query that, to be honest. I'm not saying we don't need more deeply affordable housing supply, because we do, but do we need just more supply? I'm not so certain. Can we access deeply affordable supply based on stuff that actually already exists?

Finance committee  Obviously, housing is technically and constitutionally a provincial and territorial jurisdiction, but as Mr. Kershaw, Mr. Tremblay and I have already indicated, monetary and fiscal policy, which is squarely within national-level government, plays a huge role. There's one thing I want to say about all of this.

Finance committee  We know that the business model of REITs requires an escalation of rents. Please realize that I'm a human rights lawyer. This is what I've learned over time, so bear that in mind. As I understand it, the way it works is that real estate investment trusts rely on investors. They're often institutional investors like pension funds, insurance companies and that kind of thing.

Finance committee  I think Michel is better placed to answer that. I do think that CMHC could be saying to the REITs that get loans from them that they are going to give them the loan on certain conditions. They could make it a condition, for example, that there are no rent increases for five years.

Finance committee  Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Leilani Farha. I'm the global director of The Shift, an international human rights organization focused on housing. I'm also the former United Nations special rapporteur on the right to housing, a post I held for six years, until April 2020, and I was the executive director of Canada Without Poverty.