Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the witnesses who are appearing today.
I will read from the CMHC's mandate here: “to promote the efficient functioning and competitiveness of the housing finance market”.
While I'm pleased that we have acknowledged the issue, one that our party has been pointing out for some time, I'm not nearly as pleased—in fact, I'm profoundly disappointed—that we've come to this point. We are two million homes behind, and it's going to be 3.5 million homes.
Did the CMHC or did the Department of Finance advise the government eight years ago that this issue would be occurring?