Mr. John O'Connor:

To answer the Deputy’s questions directed towards me briefly, initially, the Department had a knee-jerk reaction to the report. More engagement with commission members would definitely have been more beneficial to understand the recommendations of the report. It has been getting more traction in the past number of months but it is important for engagement to improve.

On the affordability issue, affordability goes across everybody on different income levels. Regarding affordable purchase and cost-rental housing, there is a lot of focus on initial affordability. People talk about the 30% or 35%. What there is not sufficient discussion on, which we have covered in the report, is long-term affordability. If someone is going into affordable purchase or cost-rental housing, they want affordability. It might be a significant portion of someone’s income. However, it needs to decrease to 20% or 15% of a household’s income over time. Long-term affordability is more important than the initial affordability.