Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to say good morning to my colleagues and thank the representatives from the Department of Finance for being here with us today.
In economics, we recognize that there can be overinvestment in the residential real estate sector in some circumstances. At one point, there were concerns that, with the mortgage interest deductibility in the United States, too much capital was being channelled into residential property and not enough was being channelled into other sectors. I am not necessarily talking about more productive sectors, but rather industrial, commercial and other sectors.
Since Canadians want to become homeowners and that is important to them, they are continuing to buy houses, albeit increasingly expensive ones, and their residential property now accounts for a growing proportion of their assets.
Is the Department of Finance concerned that this trend will result in Canadians investing less and less of their savings in other productive assets at a time when we need investments in the commercial and industrial sectors more than ever?