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National Observer
14-06-2025
- Politics
- National Observer
What Gregor Robertson's housing track record can tell us about his ministerial plans
There's a paradox at the heart of today's housing crisis that few politicians are willing to name, let alone solve: Millions of Canadians can't afford a home and desperately want prices to go down. But millions of other Canadians do own a home and desperately want prices not to go down. This is the pickle Canada's new housing minister, Gregor Robertson, failed to address on his inauspicious first day on the job, when a journalist asked him, 'Do you think that prices need to go down?' It was a trick question of course, or at least one loaded with subtext: which massive cohort of Canadians do you plan to screw over, the ones who own a home or the ones who don't? Instead of recognizing the trap, Robertson blithely answered the question he was asked. 'No, I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable – it's a huge part of our economy – but we need to be delivering more affordable housing.' The only part of that answer anyone heard was the first word. ' Canada's new housing minister doesn't think prices need to go down,' CTV trumpeted, as 100 similar headlines ricocheted around the country before the day was over. Full disclosure: I am both a homeowner (albeit one who wishes prices would, in fact, go down), and an acquaintance of Robertson's. I haven't seen or spoken to him in several months, and the housing ministry did not make him or anyone else available to comment for this story. Robertson's opening debacle with the parliamentary press scrum struck me as a rookie move — one that might have been excusable for a rookie politician, but that's not what Robertson is. He's the former three-term mayor of one of Canada's biggest cities, as Conservatives kept reminding him throughout his first week in Question Period. Expanding on the theme of Robertson's supposed love for expensive housing, Conservatives repeatedly accused Robertson of causing Vancouver's housing crisis during his 10-year stint as mayor, during which time home prices almost tripled. Everyone ignored the rest of Robertson's answer, where he talked about delivering more affordable housing, but it's worth revisiting. How exactly does the government intend to do this? How can you introduce cheap housing at one end of the market without affecting prices throughout the rest of it? So far, the only details we have come from the mandate for Build Canada Homes (BCH), the new federal agency Robertson will be in charge of. As the name implies, BCH promises in its mandate to 'get the federal government back in the business of building homes.' Through this agency, the federal government will 'act as a developer to build affordable housing at scale.' Canada doesn't need hundreds or thousands of new homes. It needs millions. That hasn't happened in more than 30 years. And if you ask people in the trenches of getting affordable housing built, it's exactly what the country needs. 'More than just housing' Municipal councils are at the vanguard of housing, from approving changes to land use to issuing building permits, and Robertson entered local politics in 2008, a moment when the federal government had thoroughly washed its hands of the housing portfolio. 'When the minister was first elected mayor of Vancouver, the federal government was openly hostile to the idea of investing in affordable housing,' recalls Thom Anderson, CEO of the Co-Operative Housing Federation of BC. Anderson has been in that role since 2000, and remembers when a newly minted Mayor Robertson struck a task force on affordable housing for Vancouver. One of the notions to come out of that task force was the idea of putting municipal land toward the housing crisis through a body known as Community Land Trust. At Robertson's request, the city put out a call for tenders to build affordable housing on city land. 'Essentially the request said, 'Look, if we made land the city owns available to a Community Land Trust on a 99-year lease for, say, 10 dollars, what could you build?'' Anderson said. 'How quickly could you build it and how affordable would it be, now and in the long haul?' Anderson submitted a tender on behalf of his provincial co-op federation, and won a contract to build 358 homes in an abandoned section of Vancouver's River District. 'That was so successful that the city then gave us seven more sites. And then two more. And now, 10 years later, we've built out 12 sites owned by the city, leased on the long term to the Community Land Trusts, including more than 1,000 deeply affordable co-op homes that will be deeply affordable forever.' In 2021, Monica Jut moved into one of the River District co-op units that Robertson and Anderson helped bring into being. 'It's been one of the most impactful decisions of our lives. It's given us more than just housing; it's given us stability, connection with the other members, and the freedom to grow,'Jut said. She moved here with her teenage daughter from Maple Ridge. 'We lived in market housing, but most of those places were rentals, and when the landlords were selling, it meant that we had to find another place to live.' Jut became a widow 10 years ago. She works for the federal government and has a stable income, but as a single mother, she was unable to afford a home in Vancouver. She pays approximately two-thirds the market rate for her two-bedroom flat, and knows she'll never be subjected to rent hikes or forced to move again. 'The biggest benefit of being part of the Community Land Trust is definitely stability. What they do is they protect our land from speculation and ensure that our homes remain permanently affordable. That security allows us to have bigger dreams.' In addition to making municipal land available, Vancouver – under Robertson's leadership – became the first city in Canada to impose a speculation tax, as well as an empty homes tax, which now generates roughly $150 million each year that is put entirely toward non-market housing. 'It was characterized as a punitive tax grab at the time,' Anderson recalls, 'but if you're going to take some of the wealth generated off the real estate asset base and redistribute it to create more affordable homes, what better use for a tax could there be?' Housing solutions Many of the affordable-housing ideas Robertson came up with have since spread across the country. 'Cities across the country are looking at their own land as a potential way to address the housing crisis, and Gregor could see that early in the process,' said Abi Bond, who spent five years as director of Toronto's housing secretariat after she worked with Robertson as Vancouver's director of homelessness and affordable housing programs. 'He also understood how important it was to embed affordability into supply. When you look at what the City of Vancouver delivered, it's not just supply[ing] market rental. It also includes social housing, supportive housing, all of those types of homes as well. So he didn't forget about people who are experiencing homelessness that needed places to live.' Near the end of Robertson's term, he led a successful push to get provincial funding for temporary modular housing to provide shelter for unhoused city residents. With the help of provincial funding, Vancouver approved 11 modular housing projects in his final year in office, leading to the rapid construction of over 600 units. These numbers, like the amount of co-op housing built (224 units) or approved (648 units) under Robertson's mandate, were drowned out by the wave of price increases and homelessness that overwhelmed any positive impacts Robertson was able to achieve. As a result, Robertson's oft-repeated claim to have built more affordable housing than any other mayor in Canada tends to ring hollow – especially in light of his ill-advised promise, early in his career, to end homelessness in Vancouver. Bond agrees that the solutions Robertson came up with were insufficient to save Vancouver from the twin explosion of housing costs and homelessness. But she doesn't feel that was the mayor's fault. 'It's very challenging to control the market at a municipal level, especially when many of the things affecting that market, affecting the housing crisis, are not in your control.' Anderson agrees and blames 'the complete absence of federal and provincial partners' for the problems that overwhelmed Robertson's best efforts to do what he could with the limited funds a mayor has to work with. Even so, 'as a result of [Robertson's work as mayor], there is now a fledgling network of community land trusts literally all over the country – in Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia – reclaiming neighbourhoods for whole communities who are dispossessed,' Anderson said. 'You don't do that without a political champion, and our political champion was Gregor Robertson.' Millions of homes needed Four thousand kilometers east of Vancouver, Tom Clement saw what Robertson and Anderson were accomplishing. As CEO of the Co-Operative Housing Federation of Toronto, the largest co-op federation in Canada, Clement decided to follow suit. 'We're very impressed with what's happened in Vancouver, the great work they did when Gregor Robertson was the mayor,' he said. Clement's federation is currently collaborating with a community land trust to build a 612-unit co-op in Scarborough, the biggest of its kind to be built since the federal government stopped building co-op housing under former rime minister Jean Chretien. Like all co-ops, the Scarborough complex will provide rent at below-market rates (typically 65 per cent of market rates, though that figure varies across projects and regions). The complex is being built through a mix of municipal land grants and federal financing. 'That's what I call the BC model,' Clement said. When asked how he felt about Robertson ascending to federal cabinet, Clement was thrilled. 'To have such an experienced federal housing minister, it's fantastic. You've got to understand the municipalities. Housing is very much a municipal-level issue, but there's no way that the municipalities can do it alone. They need a federal program, a strong federal partnership, and I think that's what he's going to bring.' But scale remains the issue. Canada doesn't need hundreds or thousands of new homes. It needs millions. 'One of the biggest inhibiting factors of scale is how fast and how much financing and grants you can actually access,' said Bond. 'For most municipalities, that's what's controlling their ability to move quickly. Everybody has the ambition, they've got sites, they've got access to density through local zoning. But the federal government has been limited by the scope of their programs.' That appears poised to change now with Robertson at the helm of an agency – Build Canada Homes – that expressly promises 'to provide $10 billion in low-cost financing and capital to affordable home builders.' That's on top of tens of billions more in other financing and grants, plus the federal lands that Robertson is now in a position to add to municipal community land trusts. 'He's got the prime minister's mandate to embrace a new program of supply-like construction that hasn't been seen since just after the Second World War,' says Anderson, head of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC. At the same time, Anderson cautioned Robertson 'is going to be inheriting a machinery, through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the federal bureaucracy, that hasn't been challenged to do that for quite some time. There's a lot of muscle memory that's been lost there.' On top of reinvigorating federal bureaucracies, Robertson now confronts the task of aligning 13 provincial and territorial governments with thousands of towns and cities. The odds are steep, and the timelines are almost guaranteed to disappoint anyone hoping for a sudden change in Canada's housing crisis. But after 25 years in the business of affordable housing, Anderson is more optimistic today than he's ever been. 'We haven't had a housing minister in a long, long time, if ever, that is so ready to tackle this challenge.'
Globe and Mail
30-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Carney to discuss fast-tracking housing, infrastructure projects with premiers
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he and the premiers will be discussing ways to fast-track the construction of housing and major infrastructure projects when they meet on Monday. Mr. Carney made the comments on Friday during an address to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, where local mayors and councillors from across the country were gathered for a convention in Ottawa. In a speech and then a question-and-answer session on stage, Mr. Carney said he'll be moving to implement Liberal campaign promises on housing. They include a promise to work with provinces to cut municipal development charges for multi-unit residential housing in half for five years; creating a federal entity called Build Canada Homes that will directly build and acquire housing and cut the GST on homes under $1-million for first-time homebuyers. 'We're all working through the weekend. I'll be going to Saskatoon for the first ministers meeting on Sunday and Monday, and this will be part of what we'll be discussing,' he said. The Prime Minister is also planning to discuss how to accelerate what he has called nation building projects and has asked premiers to propose short lists of projects for consideration. Some premiers have already made their list public. Ontario Premier Doug Ford submitted a list that includes infrastructure to access minerals in the province's northern Ring of Fire region; more nuclear energy generation; a new James Bay deep-sea port; a tunnel under the 401 highway through Toronto and expanded GO passenger train service. Other examples include Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston promoting a 'west wind' project to move the province's wind energy westward and Winnipeg Premier Wab Kinew's call for expanding trade through the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay's west shore. Carney to brief premiers on plan to fast-track major nation-building projects In his remarks Friday, Mr. Carney listed ports and passenger rail as priorities. 'There will be some major new ports that are built, and trade and energy corridors will be built. I mean, again, it's subject to the agreements,' he said. He also referenced federal plans for a high-speed passenger rail line, which is under review by a private sector consortium selected by Ottawa earlier this year. The consortium was selected to plan a high-speed rail route between Quebec City and Toronto, but Mr. Carney referenced a line running further west to Windsor on Friday. 'A core priority of this government is to build projects of national significance, projects that reinforce our country's resilience,' he said, adding that such projects should help diversify trade, be environmentally sustainable and built in co-operation with Indigenous peoples. 'Projects like high speed rail from Windsor to Quebec City,' he said. That one project alone is estimated to cost between $60-billion and $90-billion. Mr. Ford on Friday said his top priority is development in the Ring of Fire, followed by nuclear energy. Mr. Ford's government is embroiled in a controversy around Bill 5, which pledges to create 'special economic zones' where any provincial law could be suspended to speed up mining or other development. But the government says it's necessary to accelerate Ontario's sluggish mining approvals, and vowed to properly consult with First Nations. Doug Ford offers amendment to First Nations on mining bill but vows to speed development through 'economic zones' The Premier said he expects Mr. Carney to select a few nation-building projects that will have a significant economic impact across the country. 'One has to be the pipelines. We can't be reliant on the U.S. any longer. We have to start building pipelines, west, north and east,' Mr. Ford told reporters at Queen's Park. He also repeated his call for Ottawa to scrap Bill C-69, an environmental review law that opponents have dubbed the No More Pipelines Act. Mr. Ford said the Prime Minister wants to work collaboratively with premiers and bring the country together. 'The previous government, the previous prime minister, didn't show enough love in my opinion to Alberta and Saskatchewan,' he said. Mr. Ford added that housing is a top priority for his province, but said having the government build homes would be 'the worst thing to do.' He also suggested he was open to the idea of cutting the provincial portion of the HST on new homes. While in Saskatoon, Mr. Ford said he would be signing memorandums of understanding with Saskatchewan, Alberta and Prince Edward Island on removing internal trade barriers with Ontario. The province has already signed MOUs with Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Vancouver Councillor Rebecca Bligh, who is also the municipalities federation president, met privately Friday with the Prime Minister following his speech. She said she was pleased to hear Mr. Carney is prioritizing housing issues and that he wants to move quickly. 'What I took away from this is that nation building projects are going to be a priority,' she said in an interview. 'There's obviously a sense of urgency.'
Canada Standard
28-05-2025
- Business
- Canada Standard
King Charles Reaffirms Canadian Sovereignty, Echoes Carney's Mission in Throne Speech
King Charles III delivered Canada's Speech from the Throne Tuesday, offering royal endorsement as Prime Minister Mark Carney asserts Canadian sovereignty and pushes for greater economic independence amid rising trade tensions with the United States. "The Crown has for so long been a symbol of unity for Canada," Charles told senators and MPs assembled in the Red Chamber. "It also represents stability and continuity from the past to the present." That continuity, rooted in Canada's constitutional monarchy, serves as a stabilizing force in a time of global upheaval, the King signalled in his ceremonial address, which was drafted by the Prime Minister's Office and approved by Buckingham Palace. View our latest digests "The system of open global trade that, while not perfect, has helped to deliver prosperity for Canadians for decades, is changing," the King said. "We must confront the reality that since the Second World War, our world has never been as dangerous and unstable." But this shift is a chance to rebuild, he added. "All Canadians can give themselves far more than any foreign power on any continent can ever take away, and... by staying true to Canadian values, Canada can build new alliances and a new economy that serves all Canadians." He mentioned the government's plan to introduce legislation removing the federal barriers to internal trade and labour mobility by July 1, Canada Day. Related: Anxiety, Optimism as Throne Speech Chatter Points Toward Faster Project Approvals Economic acceleration was a central theme of the speech, as it was during Carney's recent election campaign. "Speed is of the essence," Charles said. A new major federal project office will reduce approval times for major infrastructure projects from five years to two, and the feds will also strike cooperation agreements with "every interested province and territory within six months" to realize its goal of "one project, one review." Environmental and climate campaigners in Canada are concerned this would involve the federal government abandoning its own reviews-and giving provinces a "carte blanche" to carry them out instead. The speech also unveiled Build Canada Homes, a Crown-backed initiative to double homebuilding using Canadian lumber, workers, and prefabricated technologies. With global trade under strain, the speech looked to new alliances in Europe and beyond. "The government is working to strengthen its relations with reliable trading partners and allies, knowing that Canada has what the world needs and defends the values that the world respects," the King said. "Canada is ready to build a coalition of nations that share these values, nations that believe in international cooperation and the free exchange of goods, services and ideas." Source: The Energy Mix
Global News
27-05-2025
- Business
- Global News
King Charles III delivers the throne speech. Here are 5 key highlights
King Charles III delivered the speech from the throne on Tuesday, laying out the agenda for Prime Minister Mark Carney's government. From speaking about Canada's sovereignty, saying the 'True North is indeed strong and free,' to Carney's plan to have Canada join the ReArm Europe defence program, the King also laid out Carney's economic plan for Canada. Here are five of the takeaways from what was outlined in the speech. Housing and affordability The King said the Canadian government will be reducing taxes for the middle class and cutting the GST on homes under $1 million for first-time homebuyers, reiterating Carney's campaign promises. Story continues below advertisement He said the government will lower the GST on homes between $1 million and $1.5 million. The King also said the government will double the rate of housing construction and create Build Canada Homes, a new government agency that will act as a developer for affordable housing. 'It will invest in the growth of the prefabricated and modular housing industry. And it will provide significant financing to affordable home builders,' he said. The Canadian government will also cut development charges for multi-unit builds in half, the King said. 'The government will drive supply up to bring housing costs down,' he said. 6:56 Usher of the Black Rod opens the House ahead of King Charles' Speech from the Throne Immigration caps The King said the federal government will cap the total number of temporary foreign workers and international students at less than five per cent of Canada's population by 2027. Story continues below advertisement 'By doing this, the government will attract the best talent in the world to build our economy, while sending a clear message to Canadians working abroad that there is no better time to come home,' he said. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'Canada's immigration system has long been a source of pride for Canadians and of dynamism for the economy. The government is dedicated to rebuilding the trust of Canadians in immigration by restoring balance to the system.' 1:20 First Nations leaders meet the king in Ottawa Economy and internal trade With Canada's economy facing threats from an increasingly protectionist United States, the federal government is looking to knock down interprovincial trade barriers to offset losses from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Story continues below advertisement The King said the government aims to make Canada the strongest economy in the G7. 'That starts with creating one Canadian economy out of 13. Internal barriers to trade and labour mobility cost Canada as much as $200 billion each year,' he said. The federal government will introduce legislation to remove all remaining federal barriers to internal trade and labour mobility by Canada Day, the King said. He said that while numerous provinces have already knocked down several trade barriers, the federal government will also set up a Major Federal Project Office to reduce the approval time for major projects to six months. 'It will enable Canada to become the world's leading energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy,' he said. 4:53 King Charles, Queen Camilla greet crowds as they take in Ottawa's farmers market The King said Carney and Trump have already 'begun defining a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.' Story continues below advertisement Canada will also 'strengthen its relationships with reliable trading partners and allies around the world,' he said. 2:16 What King Charles, Queen Camilla did on 1st day of Canada tour Tackling crime The King said the Canada Border Services Agency will be given new powers to examine goods destined for export, to prevent the transport of illegal and stolen products. Story continues below advertisement He added that the government will 'bring a renewed focus on car theft and home invasions by toughening the Criminal Code to make bail harder to get for repeat offenders charged with committing these crimes, along with human trafficking and drug smuggling.' He said the government will also hire an additional 1,000 Royal Canadian Mounted Police personnel. 1:06 King Charles, Queen Camilla plant ceremonial tree at Rideau Hall Cutting government spending 'In all of its actions, the government will be guided by a new fiscal discipline: spend less so Canadians can invest more,' King Charles said. Story continues below advertisement He said the government will bring its operational budget, or day-to-day spending, down to two per cent from the current growth of nine per cent per year. 'The government will balance its operating budget over the next three years by cutting waste, capping the public service, ending duplication and deploying technology to improve public sector productivity,' he said. Debate on the throne speech must now begin in the House of Commons. As a confidence matter, the government must be able to pass the legislation to implement it in order to continue governing. In the current minority government, that means it will need help from members of at least one other party.
Winnipeg Free Press
20-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
It's time for Winnipeg to seize a bold new opportunity
Opinion 'It is time to build things that we never imagined, and to build them at a speed that we have never seen. It is a time to be bold, to meet this crisis with overwhelming positive force.' These are the words of Prime Minister Mark Carney, asking Canadians to come together to fundamentally reimagine our economy, and our country, in response to a changed relationship with the United States. Carney has challenged provincial premiers to come forward with nation-building ideas that focus on productivity, competitiveness, economic growth, employment, environmental sustainability, and quality of life. Brent Bellamy photo Looking at the rail lands, and seeing a bright future. Early ideas have focused on increasing natural resource extraction and expediting its transportation to market, with the development of a coast-to-coast, national trade and energy corridor, grabbing headlines. Just as it was 140 years ago when the transcontinental railway became Canada's first nation-building project, Winnipeg's strategic gateway location along such a corridor, uniquely positions the city to boldly push its way to the front of the line and seize a generational opportunity to play a central role in a national movement to 'build, baby, build.' The railways will likely play a vital role in a national trade corridor, but their current configuration, slowly snaking through the downtown and residential neighbourhoods of a major Canadian city, is contrary to the vision of a future-focused transportation corridor. In trade, speed is money, meaning no railway company would ever choose to operate in the centre of a city. Conversely, no city would choose to forever incur the cost of infrastructure, like replacing Arlington Bridge, to overcome the conflicts of having railways at its centre. Despite this, the idea of rail relocation in Winnipeg has long been considered a dream too big to imagine, but in this moment, we have been specifically challenged to build things we have never imagined. New trade corridors will be vital for the country's prosperity, but redefining our national economy requires thinking beyond pulling more things out of the ground and getting them to market faster. The economy of the future will fundamentally be about people, and cities, the true economic drivers of our country. A cohesive strategy from Winnipeg could address both national and local economic priorities, beginning with optimizing rail operations to facilitate greater interprovincial trade and position the industry for future innovation and technological evolution, while leveraging this fundamental move to create radical local transformation in our city. The federal government has announced that they will create a new Crown corporation called Build Canada Homes, which will develop affordable housing across the country. Relocating railyards in Winnipeg would make land available for this new body to implement affordable, residential development on a large and transformational scale. A medium-density, mixed-use neighbourhood on the CPR yards could accommodate enough people to be the third-largest city in the province. Redeveloping the BNSF yards in River Heights could increase the population of that neighbourhood by one-third. These types of large-scale infill neighbourhoods would allow the city to grow in a more economically and environmentally sustainable way, reducing the amount of new infrastructure and services required to accommodate population growth. Massive new construction employment would be created to both relocate railways and construct new infill neighbourhoods in their place. This would attract new investment and economic activity to mature communities, grow the city's tax base, and provide affordable housing and social opportunity for new families. The province could bolster this strategy by incorporating its own surplus land into the initiative, including its seven downtown surface parking lots. Redeveloping the spider's web of rail lines across Winnipeg provides a different opportunity to introduce a network of mobility corridors that create a new layer of connectivity between Winnipeg neighbourhoods. These corridors could include green space, walking trails, and cycling freeways that connect suburban neighbourhoods to the inner city. Rail bridges could be turned into bike/walk bridges that unite communities through active transportation, growing neighbourhood economies by reducing pedestrian distances and expanding the potential market for local shops, restaurants and services. New bike/walk bridges could be introduced to supplement the network, including the long-planned Osborne to Downtown Walk Bike Bridge through redeveloped McFadyen and Fort Rouge Parks. This new web of active mobility could transform how we move around our city, increasing economic opportunity, neighbourhood vibrancy and quality of life. Mobility corridors could also facilitate the long overdue implementation of a connected rapid transit network. Winnipeg will soon be the only city in the country's 10 largest without light rail transit. New mobility corridors could expedite this and be the catalyst to move more quickly on other rapid transit initiatives, most importantly the downtown connections that will create major multi-modal hubs at Union Station and Portage and Main, igniting much-needed urban renewal in the city centre. Cities across the continent have demonstrated the power that rapid transit, particularly light rail, has in attracting higher density housing and neighbourhood investment through transit-oriented development, while providing new mobility options for citizens to access employment, education, and recreation. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Canada is facing a defining moment in its history. The prime minister has made it clear that the federal government is looking to rewire our economy, and redefine our strategies on climate change, housing, and productivity. All cities will be central to these goals, and Winnipeg is uniquely positioned to lead with a cohesive proposal that begins with the larger goal of removing friction from international and provincial trade through rail relocation and optimization, and continues by being locally transformative, creating far-reaching, radical change, building a more sustainable, prosperous, and economically resilient city, with a higher quality of life for all. The door of opportunity has been opened; we should boldly walk through. Brent Bellamy is creative director at Number Ten Architectural Group. Brent BellamyColumnist Brent Bellamy is creative director for Number Ten Architectural Group. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
