Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  The challenge isn't so much in establishing the co-op, which is really just filing a bunch of papers; it's doing the land and the buildings. I mentioned that this isn't just a challenge for us. There is very little new rental housing development in Vancouver at all.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes, and the reason it is so hard to develop co-ops is the same reason it's so hard to develop market rental buildings. The land costs are very high. The construction costs are very high. It's much better for developers—who after all have to make a profit, have to keep the lights on—to build condos where they put their money in for a short time, they sell them off, they get their money out, and they move on to the next project.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for inviting us to speak to your committee. l'm Darren Kitchen. I'm the government relations director at the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C. I think—in fact I know, because he told me so—that Nicholas Gazzard from CHF Canada has already talked to you a fair bit about the history and community benefits of housing cooperatives, so I don't want to bore you by going over all that stuff again.