Finance committee  As you said, I'm a big proponent of co-ops and the co-operative movement. I grew up in that movement. There's a role for different forms of affordable housing. We didn't go down the route of co-op housing. We are a charitable organization providing affordable housing. In many co-op housing situations, people are now renting.

Finance committee  I think you said it yourself: Housing is the basic right that everybody needs to live. Without it, you don't have anything. As you said, if there is no address; you can't get funds or an education. Then, from a health perspective, so many people are living in very unhealthy situations, physically unhealthy as well as mentally and socially unhealthy.

Finance committee  It is absolutely critical. With our model of focusing on the social, environmental and fiscal, it is very important. That's a holistic approach. With regard to the community navigator, the role is to assist the tenants to access the resources they need in the community to live well.

Finance committee  I'm not sure if I can answer that, because my sense from the municipalities in Nova Scotia is that they don't have a role in building and maintaining affordable housing; they do bylaws and all kinds of things. Our local municipalities have contributed and supported us from the very beginning, but in terms of this, we were told very early on that they don't do housing.

Finance committee  I think it's an important model for all of Canada, not just Nova Scotia. If we want healthy people and healthy communities, we have to acknowledge that income plays a big role in that. With the CERB funding that came out, many people were moved out of poverty. The CERB was set at a level just above the poverty line.

Finance committee  Yes, it is. It's a big part of it, and that's why, I believe, the housing strategy was put in place. As you know, the federal government did a lot of input into affordable housing and housing 30, 40 and 50 years ago. My father was involved with the Veterans' Land Act to help people get housing.

Finance committee  It's going to be smaller dollar numbers anyway. We're building 12. We wanted to build 15. We couldn't get the funding, so we scaled back. It's not so much the amount; it's how we are being assessed. We are not making a profit. We cannot make a profit in our rents. We're there to build affordable housing.

Finance committee  Making it easy to access the funding is a good lesson. We accessed the funding and we've been using it very well and we're reporting on it. We're very accountable for that. As I said, having resilient communities that can withstand shocks is really where we need to be. We need much more affordable housing.

Finance committee  Thank you, Sean. I do have advice, as you know I always do. One of the biggest challenges now with the national housing strategy is that when we built our last building, we got funding from our municipal governments and from Housing Nova Scotia. We did a lot of fundraising and we were successful in that, but since then the housing strategy has rolled out.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  The last sentence I have is to ensure that everyone has access to a livable income. That will make the greatest difference in building a resilient community. On that note, I will end by thanking you for this opportunity to contribute to this study on COVID expenses and programs.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, and thank you for this invitation to speak to this committee. I am very privileged to be able to do that. To tell you who we are, the Antigonish Affordable Housing Society has been in existence since 1993 as a non-profit organization. We received our charitable status in 2014.