Finance committee  I believe the caps have already been raised. Now we have several programs, but interest rates are very high and property prices are high across the country, which causes a number of problems. One thing I mentioned was the need for innovation in the financial sector. It's true that Canadian banks are heavily regulated and aren't necessarily motivated to offer innovative programs and mortgages.

Finance committee  Before coming into this job, I was in the rail sector. The federal government does an absolutely excellent job of using their powers of convening to bring together supply chain participants to solve problems. When there are ships backed up at the port of Vancouver and we need to expand, it involves the highways, the railways, the city.

Finance committee  Yes, I can. Fortunately, I'm here with Shaun Cathcart, who's our senior economist. He can speak to this in some data detail that I can't.

Finance committee  I think the take-up on it has been very slow because financial institutions were not prepared to offer it right away. That said, I have two boys who are of the age that would be targeted by such a program. I told them they'd be crazy not to take advantage of it. It's an excellent program for saving money toward a first home.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Well, it's a struggle.

Finance committee  That's exactly the point. If they don't sell the home, then that's a real problem.

Finance committee  Yes. We have looked into that whole issue. I could probably follow up with the exact cost that we came up with, but generally speaking, what we're concerned about is that too many requirements are being loaded onto a homeowner. They would have to incur those costs before selling, which then is a disincentive to sell the home.

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  Yes, that's the concern. You don't want this being imposed before a sale. It's important to have standards, and one of the benefits of building a lot of new product is that it's, of course, going to meet the highest standard. However, the person selling should have the choice of whether they sell it as is or not, and they shouldn't be forced to have to do that upgrade before they sell it because many of them wouldn't be able to afford to do that.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for inviting us here today. We recently met with many of you during our annual PAC days, political action committee days, and we have a brief here that I can leave with a few recommendations. I want to speak broadly about where we are in terms of the housing crisis and some of our thoughts on how to find our way out of it.

Human Resources committee  It's fourplexes, fiveplexes, sixplexes, duplexes—things that better use a footprint than a single-family home.

Human Resources committee  The percentage of people who own in this country is somewhere in the high 60%, but I think that number doesn't really tell the whole story. One the reasons we've had such a hot market lately.... I kind of want to discount the two years of COVID, because that was a bit of an anomaly.

Human Resources committee  Sure.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of the Canadian Real Estate Association's some 150,000 members, I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to provide our thoughts on the government's housing accelerator fund. I'm delighted to be here with Jeff and Mr. Cimon, because I think it's vital to hear from advocates from across the housing spectrum.