Human Resources committee  Personally, I think we haven't because we tend to be a reactionary species; we don't proactively go after problems. We haven't had the level of problems with our built environment that America has had since the foreclosure crisis. We had tighter banking regulations. We didn't have the mass exodus of people from urban centres in the same way they have.

Human Resources committee  Land banking is successful when it's complemented by support from different levels of government, governmental support, and especially by on-the-ground planning support. Neighbourhood planning and that sort of thing has to come in step, along with municipal financing, to support that sort of initiative, because it can't operate in isolation and be successful.

Human Resources committee  I would say it would be ideal to have that scenario. Right now, there's a group that has been looking at doing a pilot project in the north end, where they are pulling together different community not-for-profit operators and some private sector investors to try to get a seed of the idea growing.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Thank you to the committee for hearing what I have to say today about land banking. By way of background, this is a piece of research I did at graduate school, at UBC, back in 2007. That's why I'm reporting to you as an individual today. It's just something that came out from my past and has followed me like a wounded dog for seven years.