Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to the Minister for his opening comments. I see we are committing fewer funds this year. I am wondering about additional revenues. I guess it is called other revenues of $69 million. I will be asking questions about what exactly the source of those dollars is. It is probably in here somewhere. We may be getting an additional $55 million in new federal investments over the next two years, some which must be cost-matched. I am wondering if, when we do firm that up, there will be additional opportunities for review and input of how those dollars will be allocated in this program.
I will also be interested in asking questions on energy efficiency, whether all the new houses now will match the EGH 80 guidelines. I am interested in modernization and improvement projects to the existing stock, what exactly that might mean,
whether energy efficiency would be part of that. I think it is great that we are dedicating some funds to helping provide incentive to communities who need to develop housing for their service providers. The Minister has touched on that in his remarks. I will be interested in how that is going to be administered to ensure the most effective benefits from those dollars.
I note $1 million for upgrading energy retrofits on 100 public housing units that went through home energy evaluation. That is only $10,000 per home and I am wondering what can be achieved with that. Will these homes be upgraded to EGH 80? The $2 million dedicated to the CARE program I will have some comments on that. Later in his remarks, he mentioned $3 million additional to that program but didn’t mention energy efficiency in context to the $3 million. I am curious about that.
Increasingly, and I suppose in a way a feather in our Housing Program cap, I am hearing about communities that have a surplus of housing and the Minister highlighted the ongoing and high needs for housing. I will be asking questions as we go along in the budget to help flush out some details on that and get some insights like what our housing stock is by community in relation to need. Thank you for this opportunity.