Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. The objective of the Reaching Home program is not to build housing. It is to give communities funds so they can deliver services to people who need help to find housing or temporary financial support for housing. This program could also help communities design educational programs.

Public Accounts committee  Under the agreements, the community groups have to have the data and send us the information according by various deadlines. During the pandemic, we gave them an extension because they were very busy.

Public Accounts committee  They are not associated with the federal government, but often with not-for-profit organizations that receive the funds to deliver services in their community.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Chair. With Quebec, we work directly with the province, and the province works with community entities. We have just reached an agreement with Quebec to implement coordinated access. We have seven community entities within that particular province, and we're working on a detailed implementation plan, so we'll be advancing coordinated access within the province as well.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Chair, for the question. What I can say is that during the audit period we were in during the COVID time, for community entities, we gave them a delay and an extension to report the results of their spending. What I can tell you now is that with the money that was spent, aside from the $708 million that I already talked about for emergency measures, we supported 3,378 projects.

Public Accounts committee  During the audit period, during the COVID period of time, we gave an extension for the reporting of the results. Since that time, we do have the reporting of the results for the first two years of the program, which have made measurable impacts in placing 32,000 people in stable homes.

Public Accounts committee  Certainly. What we are seeing, as of right now, November 25, is that about half the community entities we fund—approximately 60 of them, across the country—have implemented the program. It's what we call “coordinated access”. This is an international best practice—an information system wherein all the service sectors use the same information to know who is homeless in their community and what their housing and support needs are.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the question. Outside Quebec, there are 27 community entities that have to implement coordinated access. By the end of December this year, we will have a detailed plan to help the community entities implement that particular new transformational system.

Public Accounts committee  Is this better?

Public Accounts committee  Thank you.

Public Accounts committee  This is a nine-year program. Originally it was set at $2.1 billion. It was topped up during COVID to deal with the pandemic and that crisis. The government since, in budget 2022, has continued to increase its support for the homeless community at that doubling level until the end of 2025-26.

Public Accounts committee  That's correct. It was transferred to us in the fall of 2021.

Public Accounts committee  It was ESDC.

Public Accounts committee  I will begin and then see if Mr. Tremblay or Nisa Tummon would like to add anything. During the COVID period of time, it was less than one year that the new Reaching Home program had been launched, and it was a transformational program. The homeless-serving sector did need to transition their own services to just keep people safe.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. As Ms. Bowers said, we work in collaboration on that particular target. Infrastructure Canada is responsible for leading on the program Reaching Home, which is a really important program. It is outcomes-based and we're working with communities to have the data that you have mentioned.