Thank you. That's very kind.
I want to start quickly with a brief comment. I'm concerned that in this conversation the term “financialization” has been conflated with investments in the housing market. Financialization has led to the loss of 15 affordable units for every one new unit created.
My question is for the CMHC.
I have a local organization in my community that's been waiting for MLI Select insurance since July 2022. That is putting into question a building in which 60% of the units would be affordable that has been purchased by the community. At the same time, we have large real estate investment trusts that have received over a billion dollars in loans through the RCFI, and 80% of the units could be unaffordable.
My question is this: What can be done at the CMHC to better make sense of the program offerings so that communities like mine across the country get to report back to say that more is being done to address the affordability crisis?