Thank you for this opportunity to update the committee on how CMHC is supporting Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
My 2,000 colleagues and I have been devoted to doing all we can to help stabilize our financial system and ensure that Canadians continue to have the security of a home. We have mobilized our crisis response plan in order to perform an essential role, and that is to act as a shock absorber to Canadians during unforeseen events.
In the early days of the crisis, our financial system came under pressure as bank funding markets seized. In coordinated action with the Bank of Canada, along with the Department of Finance and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, we relaunched the insured mortgage purchase program, or IMPP, a tool developed by CMHC to support market liquidity during the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
Under the current revised program, we stand ready to purchase up to $150 billion of insured mortgages to ensure that banks have access to reliable funding. In short, the IMPP provides a safety net to ensure that banks can continue their lending activities so that housing markets remain functional.
We are also ready to expand the issuance of conventional Canada mortgage bonds, depending on market conditions and investor demand.
As Canadians do their part to contain the spread of the coronavirus, more than ever, our homes have become a sanctuary—a sacred place of safety and refuge in challenging times. We therefore acted quickly to offer help to Canadians who are having difficulty paying their mortgages or rent.
As the committee knows—