Finance committee  Sure.

Finance committee  I guess it depends on what the word “permanent” means. “For the foreseeable future” may be the better term because, again, the housing crisis is not going to go away quickly. In fact, I would argue that it's probably going to get worse because we're just not building enough housing.

Finance committee  There are two things. Because there's a recognition from the federal government and the provinces and municipalities that housing is an issue and in crisis, the housing needs assessment is hugely important. It needs to happen in order for funding to be put appropriately into communities.

Finance committee  Really quickly, since we probably don't have a ton of time, I'll just say recruitment. In the province of New Brunswick, the current Minister of Public Safety and Justice wants to have 80 new RCMP officers in the province by the end of 2025. All the mayors of the southeast region met with him last Thursday, and the question I asked him was, “It's wonderful that you want to have some extra police officers for visibility and crime reduction efforts, but how confident are you that you're going to be able to recruit?”

Finance committee  No. The easy answer is no. We know we need housing built because we have people crying out, sending emails, or posting on social media or whatever, saying they can't find any place to live. Student housing is something altogether different. The university has its push to build residences, and there are opportunities to have off-campus housing as well, but as soon as you move a student off campus into housing in the town, it takes away an opportunity from someone who lives in the community, and we're all in the same community.

Finance committee  I think it would. I also want to point out that the southeast region in Moncton also has had huge success with the housing accelerator fund, so I don't want to make it seem as though nobody can access it. However, the reality is that it's very small. I would even call us a “have” community.

Finance committee  Through the chair, that's a good question. With respect to the housing crisis, I don't want to say it's new. The housing crisis is a bigger issue now than it was in the last few years, or was, as I said, seven years ago.

Finance committee  In the municipality of Tantramar, I've created a mayor's round table on housing. We've had two meetings—we've met only in the last two months—to bring in non-profit organizations working in the housing sector to discuss this very issue. What is the municipality's responsibility for housing?

Finance committee  It's a good question. I think it would hinder, certainly. I think the housing issue from a municipal perspective, as I said, is so complex. We have been pushed into this realm of dealing with housing where we've never had to before. In New Brunswick, the same thing goes for health care.

Finance committee  Through the chair, thank you for the question. I guess the housing accelerator fund was one of the most recent ones, and I've already spoken about that. It's restrictive because of the housing needs assessment, but the application itself is also hugely onerous. It is difficult to complete.

Finance committee  Well, I guess I'm not sure if that's the case. I don't know if larger cities tend to get looked at over smaller communities by the CMHC, but I would think that larger cities would be able to submit more applications, and their applications may be more complex. I know that municipalities do get kind of sidelined waiting for funding applications to be approved.

Finance committee  Again, that's a good question. I would have to agree that data is incredibly important. I'll try not to get into it too much because I know I don't have a lot of time, but we have regional service commissions in the province. They're a level of government that's not a level of government.

Finance committee  Do I have 20 minutes to answer that question? As you say, it's complicated. I think part of the problem is in communication. Communication is always an issue, but communication between the three orders of government can sometimes be prohibitive, especially when you're talking about potential funding opportunities that would trickle down to municipalities.

Finance committee  First off, thank you for the CAVE and BANANA acronyms. I will be using those as much as possible.

Finance committee  The answer for my municipality is no. Don't get me wrong, though. I think the housing accelerator fund is a significant funding opportunity for municipalities. The reality in my community—and in many, many communities in New Brunswick—is that in order to access that funding, you are required to have a housing needs assessment.