Thank you to members of the Standing Committee on Finance for inviting me to be here today as a witness to provide insights on this critical issue from my perspective of mayor of the City of London.

Let me first recognize the members of Parliament from London: Peter Fragiskatos, Arielle Kayabaga, Lindsay Mathyssen and Karen Vecchio. I want to say that I value my relationship with each of them and deeply appreciate their commitment to our community, their constituents and their desire to work collaboratively on tangible solutions.

I also want to once again thank the federal government for choosing London as the first community in all of Canada to receive funding through the housing accelerator fund. The $74 million announced last month will allow our city to facilitate the creation of an additional 2,187 new homes over the next three years. That's an increase of 23% more than we otherwise would have built. It will also provide opportunities to support our unprecedented health and homelessness system response while exploring a series of innovative housing solutions, including the conversion of vacant office space downtown into rental housing.

I'm here today as the mayor of a city with a unique perspective on housing affordability. We are one of the fastest-growing cities in all of Ontario and one of the most rapidly expanding population bases in all of Canada. We've enjoyed many benefits as a result, but London has also experienced a variety of challenges, affordability being chief among them. In the face of soaring rental rates and housing prices, our council has committed to permitting the construction of 47,000 new homes over the next 10 years.

Across Ontario it's estimated that we need at least 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years to adequately house the population. Meanwhile, there's never been a period when more than 850,000 have been built in any decade. It's clear that we have an unprecedented challenge before us.

All levels of government must commit to prioritizing the development of housing within existing urban and suburban areas in order to expedite housing development that is cost-effective and delivered in the most timely way. Maximizing the use of existing and easily expandable physical infrastructure, including pipes, roads and transit, is the fastest and most effective use of resources to provide new housing through intensification, infill and logical extensions of existing development.

The cost of available land is also a critical element in establishing feasibility of all housing developments. Given the extent of land owned by the Canadian government, a real difference could be made if the not-for-profit housing sector could gain preferential access to some of these lands. Long-term, no-cost or low-cost land leases for not-for-profit housing corporations for the purpose of building affordable housing would render many new multi-residential development projects feasible while the government retains the land assets in perpetuity.

Any and all economic stimuli directed towards the development of purpose-built rental accommodations will help in getting the most necessary forms of housing built. The recent decision to eliminate the GST on purpose-built rental construction through a rebate program is a valuable first step in creating a climate conducive to the development of affordable housing. Retroactively adjusting the start date for this program from mid-September to the beginning of the federal fiscal year would have an even greater measurable effect on the development of affordable housing by making eligible hundreds if not thousands of projects that have already substantially cleared local planning hurdles.

Offering discounts on interest rates on affordable and supportive housing projects through the Canada Infrastructure Bank would immediately result in the development of proposals for the most-needed forms of housing and would be instrumental in addressing our most vulnerable populations' housing needs.

Re-establishing a newly focused multi-unit residential benefit, or MURB—a de facto tax deduction for investors and carefully selected purpose-built and affordable residential development projects—could contribute to numerous new housing projects for the most underserved niche in the housing supply in many cities.

The federal government should revisit the HST rebate threshold established in 1991. Given that the cost of housing has at least doubled since that time, a commensurate doubling of the $350,000 to $450,000 HST rebate would have enormous affordability benefits for first-time homebuyers, who may vacate existing rental properties to buy a new home.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not make reference to the most valuable element in the housing continuum. That is the human element responsible for building homes. Federal programs that contribute to an increase in the pool of skilled labour that builds homes are enormously valuable. Whether through targeted immigration or the implementation of complementary skills development programs with the provinces, the expansion of Canada's skilled labour pool is essential for the expansion of our home-building capacities.

I want to thank you for this opportunity to present some of these ideas today. I believe that the issue of housing is a shared responsibility, and being able to work in partnership across all levels of government and industry partners is critical to our tackling the housing affordability challenges in this country.

Thank you.