Finance committee  Sure. Some of the elements are that CMHC generates your financing for a development based on the rents collected, so the more affordable a building is, the less rent you're collecting and the less financing you can get, which means that it's actually the most deeply affordable housing that can't be developed with CMHC support.

Finance committee  For example, in the 1970s and 1980s, CMHC funded buildings in coordination with provincial health care departments, so instead of being given massive amounts of money up front, providers were given funding over a period of 50 years to cover mortgages and maintenance costs for a building.

Finance committee  Sure. Here's one of the fundamental things: What am I good at? My team is good at running supportive housing and affordable housing for low-income Canadians with disabilities. That's what we're good at. We're not experts in housing development, so when we have to do all the work around development preparation—so architects' drawings, permit access, working with the city to eliminate fees associated with development and all that stuff—we have to hire external folks to work with us often, and we spend much of our senior management time on those development pieces.

Finance committee  Thanks for inviting me to speak to you today. St. Michael's Homes operates four buildings providing supportive housing and bed-based addiction treatment. Like other non-profit housing providers, we are keen to develop new housing. However, for the past 30 years or so, since the federal government first got out of housing, the rules in place for capital and financing access have made it highly challenging to develop housing that is meaningfully affordable.