I'll quickly say I'm troubled by a couple of aspects of this amendment. First, we have existing competition from the private sector. Genworth has approximately 30% of market share; no one has suggested that we try to track all of Genworth's business up to this point, and the market has been operating effectively. While you all know I had concerns about the increasing of competition in the marketplace, I don't think this tracking of private business decisions is really in anyone's interest.
Second, I'm concerned about the additional regulatory burden this will place on government and the cost it will involve.
Third is CMHC. We heard Karen Kinsley say that the real threat to CMHC is they end up with all the dogs, in terms of mortgage insurance, and I don't want any provision that's going to actually increase that.
Mortgage insurance is not a right; it's a privilege. It's like every other insurance product; you have to qualify for it. If you don't qualify for it, there's a reason, and the reason is usually that you're a bad credit risk and therefore don't qualify for insurance. It's not a right, and this particular amendment makes it appear as if providing mortgage insurance is a right.
I can just see the thin edge of the wedge here coming back to say that a certain provider who did not provide mortgage insurance to a certain client in a certain area is all of a sudden facing regulatory scrutiny, and I don't think that's the intent of what we're doing at all.