Thank you.
Let me make a couple of introductory remarks for both the NDP-1 and NDP-2 amendments. I'm really hoping that my colleagues from all sides around the table will give these amendments serious consideration.
They have to do with mortgage insurance, and they acknowledge that the government has decided to open up mortgage insurance to private competitors. They are an attempt to reflect some of the concerns we heard from individuals who were supportive of the open process but wanted to see some guarantees put in place. They are a serious attempt to put some oversight into the process and to actually establish some clarity around the criteria being used vis-à-vis private mortgage insurance.
So I'm really hoping that there will be some serious debate and consideration of these items. I don't think they detract the government at all from their agenda. I think they're helpful in terms of what people like the home builders and the Real Estate Association, Desjardins, and of course some of the housing coalition folks said on Monday.
I'll describe both amendments, Mr. Chairperson. On the first one, if you turn to page 167 in your book for the bill, and turn to clause 193, we propose to add subclause 193.(1.1), which would simply say that despite subclause 193.(1), the Minister of Finance may not enter into any agreement or selection of a person that does not meet the applicable selection criteria prescribed by regulation.
This basically is recognizing that the government will want to in fact look at criteria under the regulations to ensure some sort of standard of equality is in place. That addresses the concern that folks had about the possibility of some mortgage insurers wanting to play the market and choose areas and deny other areas of need.
So it's just an attempt to try to get some measure of equality introduced into the process so that government can then judge and look at the outcome and make decisions subsequent to that, pursuant to the opening up of mortgage insurance to others besides CMHC and Genworth.
Then you go to the second part of that amendment. It adds on page 168, at clause 194, a fourth category, and it is the selection criteria that persons may or may not use to sell mortgage or hypotech insurance.
So it basically provides for specific standards governing the relationship between insurer and lender as a possibility. It allows for the government to look at the possibility of ratios of high to lower risk clients as part of the criteria, and it simply recognizes that there are some regulations now that can be added to. This amendment makes that possible.
Then I'll go to the last amendment, which is also on page 168, in clause 193. After subclause 193.(5) it adds all of these words--