Every country's mortgage system is a reflection of its history and regulatory policy. I start by saying that Canada's mortgage system has worked quite well. Many of my peers are envious of the track record or credit quality in our mortgage system. A hallmark of it is that we have relatively shorter amortization periods, so people pay down their mortgages, and the lower your debt goes the less risky your financial situation is. When you have longer mortgages your debt stays around for longer and it is a higher-risk issue.
The Bank of Canada did interesting work on how to improve our marketplace to make longer-term mortgages available so that, if households so choose, they can term out their mortgages for longer than five years at a reasonable price. They can do it right now; it's just the prices are fairly expensive. I refer you to them. They did a lot of good work, and they have a lot of good ideas. In aggregate, if the product set evolves in that way, that will be a net benefit to the system because it will give mortgagors more choices to manage their personal financial risks.