In terms of CMHC, we talked a little, earlier.... Through the chair, [Inaudible—Editor] engaged Mr. Dixon about the mortgage insurance rates that have been increased. Increasing those now will certainly be detrimental to getting....
We are in a crisis. We don't want to be alarmists, but I think we all acknowledge this is a crisis. We need to keep that at the forefront of all decisions we make. What can we be doing that will help? In times like these, you have to not do things like increasing mortgage insurance and tightening underwriting on loans.
As all the witnesses said—Mr. Pomeroy spoke about it, as well—it's very important that we are able to unlock funding through CMHC, the RCFI, MLI Select and mortgage insurance rates that actually get shovels in the ground and rental housing built. Mr. Dixon talked about all the projects they'd like to be doing. They will provide more affordable rents with support from various levels of government, including CMHC.
We were a bit perplexed over the recent move by CMHC to increase mortgage insurance rates. This is not the right time to be doing things that make it more difficult to get rental housing projects built.