Human Resources committee  We believe that in order for people not to be in core housing need, they should not be spending more than 30% of household income.

Human Resources committee  We are very acutely aware of the affordability challenges that Canadians face and we address this issue from a number of perspectives. We provide low-cost financing to reduce the cost of housing construction. We also have done numerous studies on the need to increase housing supply for there to be a better balance between housing demand and housing supply.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for the question. I feel it is one tool that could be used to preserve existing housing stock. My position is always that it's good to preserve existing housing stock. However, as I mentioned, we need to increase the number of social housing units. I think we need to combine an acquisition fund with continued investment in the creation of new stock in order to expand the social housing stock that exists in the country.

Human Resources committee  This is a complex question, and it's hard to answer in one minute. I would say the lack of housing supply together with the mismatch between the high demand for housing and the low supply creation abilities of the country have made existing housing stock a very valuable asset. In a market system like ours, when there is a supply shortage, it makes the price of existing assets much higher and more valuable.

Human Resources committee  I can only speak about the mortgages on CMHC's books. We are a mortgage insurer. We have a pretty good sense of the state of the mortgage market by monitoring our balance sheet. We're very conscious of the impact that high interest rates are having on Canadians. Right now, we are looking at the highest-risk mortgages in our book.

Human Resources committee  Actually, I have that information for you, and I will provide it to you.

Human Resources committee  It has actually declined. It's 0.25%. It's very low, partly because house prices continue to increase in some markets. People have more equity. The employment picture for homeowners, at least, is very strong.

Human Resources committee  We have a very dedicated group of people at CMHC who are familiar with the real estate development process. We are not a capacity-building organization but an underwriting organization, but to the extent that we have time and resources, we are working with smaller non-profits to help them through the real estate development cycle.

Human Resources committee  Currently there is no acquisition fund at CMHC. It's something that is not part of the national housing strategy programs, but definitely, if a decision is made in future years to include it, CMHC would be in a position to be able to implement it.

Human Resources committee  We have, in Canada as a whole, four million apartment units. Two million of these are condos that are rented out and two million are purpose-built rentals that are aging. It's this aging stock that provides the most affordable housing for Canadians. The purpose of the acquisition fund would be to purchase those aging units and transfer them from the for-profit sector to the non-profit sector.

Human Resources committee  The national housing co-investment fund, which is one of our flagship financing programs, has a stream for renovation and repairs. The target for the fund is to repair 260,000 units of aging housing stock. To date, we have committed funding to repair 130,000 units. Unfortunately, I don't have the breakdown for Quebec, but it's part of the program that has been very successful.

Human Resources committee  I fully understand and I will get the minutes to you as quickly as I can.

Human Resources committee  CMHC has done no work on this area. I cannot comment on that at all, unfortunately. My apologies.

Human Resources committee  Like many companies, we review our pay and salary structure on an annual basis. We do this to ensure that the pay is appropriate based on market conditions.

Human Resources committee  No. I'm not aware of this.