Finance Committee on May 29th, 2012

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Kennedy, you mentioned that somebody would talk to you about criminal law, and I was wondering how many years you practised criminal law?

[Paul Kennedy]

I was a lawyer with the Department of Justice for 25 years. I started off as a criminal prosecutor in Toronto for about eight years. I picked it up again as the senior general counsel for the Federal Prosecution Service. I was responsible for the criminal prosecutions in Canada in terms of drugs, proceeds of crime, money laundering, those things.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Actually, it says that in your bio, which is on the website in front of me; thanks very much, Mr. Brison.

[Paul Kennedy]

Of course, I have four-plus years on the.... As chairman of the commission, one has to refresh one's knowledge of criminal law.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Absolutely, and you were reappointed once by this government.

[Paul Kennedy]

Twice.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Twice by this government, that's right.

In your time as a prosecutor, did you ever lose any cases?

[Paul Kennedy]

Some, but usually I could convict you.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

That begs the question, what do you know about me?

[Paul Kennedy]

This is equivalent to the French “un”, as in “one”.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Yes, thank you very much. I appreciate that. I've never been convicted, nor charged. I only wanted to say that for the record. As I said, I was a criminal lawyer, but not a criminal and a lawyer at the same time.

That was my point. The one thing I do know—and I have a short period of time—is that in every room that has two lawyers, there will be three opinions. One will be on one side, one will be on the other, and one will be somewhere in between.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

That was what they said about economists—they've predicted 12 of the last five recessions.

Thank you.

Mr. Brison, you'll probably have a couple of minutes. Once the bells ring, I will adjourn.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Thank you very much.

I have a question on mortgage policies. When were 40-year, no-down-payment mortgages first introduced in Canada?

[Prof. Jane Londerville]

In the early 2000s and they weren't around for very long.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Around 2007—

[Prof. Jane Londerville]

In 2004, 2005, something like that, and they were only there for like two years, maybe.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

It was actually 2006.

[Prof. Jane Londerville]

Okay. So there you go.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Yes. It was 2006. There was a big take-up on them at the time.

[Prof. Jane Londerville]

There was, yes.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

I think around 40% of first-time mortgages fell into that category.

[Prof. Jane Londerville]

I don't know that percentage, but I wouldn't be surprised. I saw some stats from Genworth where they had done quite a.... A third of theirs were 40 years in the year that I was looking at.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

So, they are introduced in 2006 and the decision to reduce the amortization period came about after the global financial crisis, is that correct?

[Prof. Jane Londerville]

Yes. I think 2008 was the drop to 35 years, and 2010 to 30 years. Something like that.