Likewise, to echo the comments of our two colleagues here, we were not consulted, although we did raise these issues in early November with the staff at the Minister of Finance's office.
I'll pick up very specifically on your point about the effect there. In Quebec, 40% of the buyers of either existing or new houses are first-time homebuyers. The issue here is.... Yes, it has an impact on housing starts, but it also has an impact on the resale market and the home improvement market. It's all a chain, because those existing buyers willing to sell their house to move into a condo or a retirement home have a house for sale, to be purchased by either another experienced homeowner or a new homeowner. It's a chain, and all the parts are linked together. It has an impact on all the dimensions.
One of the perverse effects of this new policy is that those who are on the brink of buying a house, with just enough down payment saved, are not qualified anymore. They're going to delay purchasing that house. They're going to purchase a cheaper house or locate somewhere else. They're going to call their aunt, dad, or uncle to raise more money, or they're going to remain a tenant, keep that money, and now with that $10,000, $15,000, or $20,000 they have saved, they're going to buy a truck, a boat, or something and get some of what was called earlier a “bad debt”.
You end up in a situation where people will knock at the bank's door not to borrow for a mortgage but to get some lending for more consumption—a trip to the south or a cruise, or whatever. It's consumption-related indebtedness, which is not backed by an asset that appreciates and that you pay down, like a house. That's the perverse effect, to pick up on what Mr. Sorbara was raising earlier.