Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I welcome the opportunity to continue our discussion of the solutions labs program, which is a key element of Canada's 10-year, $70 billion-plus national housing strategy.
I'd like to acknowledge that I'm joining you again today from Ottawa on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples.
I explained how solution labs work in my previous appearance, so I won't go over that ground already covered, but I do want to reiterate our commitment and confidence in this innovative approach to solving complex housing problems.
As I mentioned last time, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, has funded 47 solution labs as of December 31, 2020. I provided brief details on two of them. The examples I have given demonstrate how various stakeholders are focusing on vulnerable groups, who often fall through the cracks of the Canadian housing system. These groups require special, targeted solutions to meet their unique needs. This is the heart of the solutions labs.
There are many more examples I could share with you, but instead I want to take this opportunity to emphasize something we are not doing, which is funding research on a home equity tax. This was a significant topic of discussion at our last meeting. Regrettably, erroneous media reports—misinterpretation of the research parameters of one lab in particular—have led to this misunderstanding. I would like to put any concerns about this to rest today.
As is the case for most national housing strategy initiatives, the ultimate goal of the solutions labs program is to increase housing supply. There is a direct relationship between housing supply and affordability. Whether we are talking home ownership or rental housing, cost increases when there's not enough supply to meet demand. The impacts trickle down through the entire housing continuum. Increasing supplies of all types of housing is therefore the primary solution to the housing crisis that many communities and households face today.
It's no secret that house prices have been increasing at record levels in many of Canada's largest cities. Bidding wars are common, and many buyers are paying tens of thousands of dollars over the asking price to acquire a home. That means Canadians are taking on more and more debt. The combination of high house prices, low interest rates, high levels of household indebtedness and the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID pandemic represents a real threat to the financial well-being of young Canadian families and to Canada's overall economic stability. This is why OSFI has proposed to strengthen the stress test for uninsured mortgages. This proposal is fully supported by CMHC.
Making housing more affordable is why we exist. As I mentioned last time, we have set a bold aspiration that by 2030 everyone in Canada will have a home that they can afford and that meets their needs. There's no doubt that some of the ideas we have been hearing about from solutions labs will help us towards achieving this goal.
I would like to thank the committee for inviting me back to appear before them.
I’d be happy to take questions from the committee at this time.