Thank you, Chair.
I also would like to take this opportunity to welcome all the new members to the committee and to welcome back all the old ones.
Thank you to Mr. Blaikie for bringing this forward. I think it's well in line with the mortgage study that I had wanted to get started as well. Given the risk of a mortgage default crisis in Canada, according to the IMF, and a serious risk of even negative amortizations, I think this is a very important study right now, and very timely.
I want to suggest two things with this study. One is that because of the crisis we're in right now, I don't know if we can have as many witnesses within the dates given. I would propose that we extend the dates to November 20, November 27, December 4 and December 11. In our discussions, Mr. Blaikie wanted to make sure we had a report at least before the next budget. I think that still gives enough time to the clerks, given their okay that they could have something ready for us, to at least get a report ready by then.
I also want to see if we could add to the witnesses included here. I know the motion says “not limited to”, but I would add the CMHC, the Canadian Real Estate Association, others in the real estate industry and, although I know the motion says “banks”, any other related people who can talk about some of the real risks in mortgages today.
Those are the things that I would like to propose. I don't have anything fully prepared in writing. Those would just be added through a friendly amendment.