There's no question that it's knocking people out of the housing market to a pretty significant degree. That affects jobs. It affects construction. Unfortunately, it affects jobs and construction in the most extreme manner in the areas that can least afford to have it happen, in places like Alberta, which has been facing challenges with oil, forest fires, and so on; and Atlantic Canada, which is still trying to recover from 2009. In those areas where there is still an opportunity to have construction at a decent rate, we're seeing major slowdowns in what should be part of the local economy.
I think the other thing we have to look at when we're knocking people out of the housing market is that we're not just talking about the current economy; we're talking about the future. Where are these people going to be at the time of retirement if they are never able to get into the market? We heard stories, when some of the mortgage rules came in, of people being rejected and then going and buying a car, saying, “Well, we're not going to be able to afford a house; we're going to take the money we've saved and buy a car.” I don't think that that's the way we want to have our financial planning occur in Canada. We would like to see people investing in their future as an investment.
I also think that there's a strange leaning by some right now in suggesting that housing is a bad investment or that it isn't the investment it used to be. We know housing goes through cycles. Prices go up; prices go down; but over the course of time, just like the stock market, it's pretty darn steady, and it's putting shelter over your head. I think that we need to remember why Canadians are where they are in terms of success as a society. Home ownership has been a huge part, and it's time to re-engage in solutions for that.