Scott Aitchison

Mr. Speaker, the member just described what happens in a recession. Prime Minister The fact is that Canadians need results. Thispromised results. In fact, he promised to build at a speed not seen in a generation, but all he has delivered in his first year is a third federal housing bureaucracy with no targets, no timelines and no results. He has given Canadians higher costs, higher debt and [more]

Prime Minister Mr. Speaker, where are the results? Thepromised to double the pace of housing construction to almost 500,000 new homes a year, but his own budget watchdog said his new $13-billion housing agency will build only about 5,000 homes. The CMHC's chief economist pointed this week to “weaker momentum for future supply”. Meanwhile, Canada's home prices are up 28% since 2015. Prime [more]

Thank you for that. That's an excellent explanation. In your experience, is it your observation that all too often politicians, when looking for emergency solutions, don't think about the importance of wraparound supports? They just think, “Get beds. Get them off the street”, and that's the solution. Is it out of sight, out of mind?

Thanks, Gary. I'd like to move on to Ms. Savage. I will not do this justice, unfortunately, in English or in French, but you made a statement about avoiding pitting investment in housing against the outcomes of homelessness. Have I captured that correctly?

I'm officially out of time, but I'll ask the Chair for the moment to say thank you. Thank you for your resilience, and thank you for your courage to be here.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank each of the witnesses in this round. I want to say to Mr. Miles, who's here, thank you for being here. Thank you to Mr. Thiessen as well. You have both shared an incredibly powerful personal experience with us. I think that was important for us to hear. It's important that this information be central to our report to the House of Commons and that, as a [more]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to all the witnesses who are here. I have a few different questions, and I'm going to start with Mr. Gladstone. I don't think you mentioned this, Gary, in your initial comments, but in terms of housing wait-lists, can you tell us for how long persons with disabilities wind up on wait-lists? How much longer does it take to establish permanent housing for persons [more]

Can you give us a sense of how many units are needed to fill that gap? I'm sure it's not just a simple number, but could you give us a sense of how many units?

That's an excellent analogy. Thank you for that. Ms. Lloyd, I would ask you a similar question. I think your lived experience is a very powerful story. Thank you for sharing it. Based on your observation and lived experience, would you say that all too often, politicians at all levels are inclined to get the emergency shelter bed open and not think about it much more than that?

I'll try again. During your opening remarks, you made a statement about the importance of avoiding pitting the investment in housing against the outcomes of non-housing or homelessness. I probably haven't gotten it correct, but it struck me, and I didn't entirely understand what you meant when you used the words “pitting one against the other”.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Gary, in terms of housing wait-lists for persons with disabilities, can you give us some sense of the number of people on those lists? How much longer would it take for persons with disabilities to get permanent housing than perhaps the general population?