Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will begin my presentation in French.
I'll conclude in English.
For 80 years, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, has been helping Canadians access housing—in good times and bad. We do this by providing financing solutions, delivering housing programs, and offering trusted housing research and insights. We do all that in partnership with more than 10,000 clients across the housing sector.
As this committee knows, climate change is increasing both the frequency and severity of extreme weather events across Canada. Mitigation and adaptation are essential. CMHC supports these goals by offering financing solutions that incentivize climate-compatible design in new housing construction. For example, nearly 50% of the housing units we backed in 2024 were climate-compatible
We also delivered the successful Canada greener homes loan program. This offered interest-free financing directly to Canadian families to make their homes more energy efficient.
As part of ongoing analysis, we have found that homes in flood-risk areas tend to see slower price growth than homes outside of these areas. We are continuing to study this pattern to better understand why.
At the same time, CMHC is technical adviser to Public Safety for the work on the national flood insurance program. The intent is to protect high-risk households that cannot currently access insurance and to help ensure that homes damaged by extreme weather events can be repaired and remain part of our housing stock, especially now, when Canada has a severe housing shortage.
When it comes to flooding, some residential homes in low- and medium-risk flood areas do have access to flood insurance, but those in high-risk areas don't. Where they do have access, either the insurance coverage isn't adequate to cover losses, or it's simply not affordable. About 10% of households are uninsurable or severely under-insured, yet account for 90% of total flood risk, potentially representing modelled losses of about $1.5 billion per year. When floods happen, families in these homes often have to rely on personal savings, debt, charities and/or government assistance programs such as the disaster financial assistance arrangements.
As technical adviser to Public Safety Canada, CMHC has helped to engage with provinces and territories and partners across the property insurance industry. The insurers have expressed strong support for a national flood insurance program, one that is industry-delivered and government-backed. They also told us the program should be designed so that it is scalable to other extreme weather events and natural catastrophes over time, and that the risks can be transitioned back to industry over time.
Canada is the only G7 country without a public mechanism for managing natural catastrophes. There are lessons we can learn from other countries. Given our federation, with roles at all three levels of government, we need a made-in-Canada model.
CMHC continues to support Public Safety Canada with technical advice as needed to prepare options for the program. Whatever option is chosen, CMHC is committed to helping stand it up.
In the context of the country's current housing and affordability crisis, Canadians cannot endure financial strain to climate events and cannot afford to lose their homes. Ensuring that Canadians have access to affordable and adequate insurance and that communities are resilient will help reduce climate-related hardship and will help maintain a strong housing system for all.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd be happy to answer questions from the committee.