Thank you very much, Chair.
I'd like to thank Mr. Vis for his warm words of congratulation.
On the subject of foreign buyers, CMHC collects information on this through our rental surveys. We can provide you access to our rental surveys after this meeting.
With respect to just the topic of foreign buyers, I believe there were actions in the recent budget to address this issue. Of course, CMHC monitors this issue. However, we don't think this is the most critical issue affecting housing affordability in Canada today. We believe the issues that are giving rise to house price escalation in the markets today are driven by supply factors. For a number of years—and this predates the pandemic—the pace of housing supply creation has not kept pace with demand. From our perspective, that is the single most important factor that has contributed to escalating housing prices.
Our recommendation to the committee and to Canadians at large—this was outlined in a 2018 paper that our housing economists provided—is to put the focus on the barriers to housing supply. Again, this is a complex issue that involves action by many levels of government. It's our view that of course it's important to track—