Senator Gold: Respectfully, you mischaracterize both the statement that the Prime Minister made, which was a statement more about the jurisdictional issues than the government’s moral responsibility — which it is exercising — to take leadership with the provinces, the municipalities and the private sector to address this crisis. Nor is it correct to say that the housing crisis was something that the government created when anyone who has had any experience — as I have, and many here have had — in this sector, regardless of where you come from — whether it’s from the banking sector, the construction sector, the building materials sector or the labour market sector — knows how complex it is.

Anyone who has had the privilege, as I have, of living in your wonderful province, knows there are also issues of land availability and municipal zoning to say nothing of vested interests, dare I say, who have resisted to some degree some of the solutions that are clearly available to address at least some aspect of this crisis. It is a complicated crisis and problem. The government is exercising leadership in its areas of jurisdiction with the levers that it has, and it will continue to do so.