Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning to my colleagues.

Thank you to the witnesses for your testimony.

I have a few comments before I ask some questions. I was elected as a member of Parliament in 2015. I think it was quite clear there was a challenge from coast to coast to coast with respect to housing and housing shortages, so early in our mandate, we came forth with our national housing strategy, recognizing that there was a leadership role for the federal government to play.

If we go back over previous governments, this situation has been created, to be clear, over many governments back many years, but if you look at just the government that preceded us, the Harper government, they didn't just back away from housing; they put the car in full reverse and stepped on the gas. The amount of housing starts in the previous government's mandate, or years in power, were very small.

Then we look at the current Leader of the Opposition. When he was housing minister, you could count on two hands the number of housing starts that were created under his mandate. You see his commitment and seriousness towards housing when he compares co-op housing to Soviet-style housing.

I recognize that my friends and colleagues across, as the opposition, will be critical, and it is their job to do that. I think two things that are very clear when you see their questioning and their responses to some of the witness testimony are that they feel this is all something we bear responsibility for and that it's all affordability, without recognizing there's an affordability crisis, really, worldwide. We're certainly not responsible for the affordability crisis in the U.K., in Europe and in the United States. We recognize we need to play a role. I think we all agree that all three levels of government have a role to play.

I'm from New Brunswick. Sadly, we have a premier and a Conservative government there who also have the same view with respect to housing. They don't view it as a priority. Our neighbours in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island joined us in removing the sales tax from new apartment builds, and you can see that Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have tripled the building of apartments in a three- to four-month period.

My first question to you, Mr. Oleksiuk, is this: How important is it that provinces join us on the removal of the tax on new builds, and what can we do to entice other provinces to take more of a leadership role when it really is their file?

Thank you.

Wayne Long

$465,707.00