Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Actually, I tend to agree with my colleague, Mr. Christopherson, but here I have to disagree. I am really concerned with this Auditor General's report. Some of the points that were raised by Mr. Kmiec are quite valid.
Way back in 2016, in the annual reports that we get from public accounts—in those two huge volumes—we get a few lines on the contingent liability. The contingent liability from CMHC has been to the tune of about $450 billion. When I expressed my concern I was assured then by the assistant deputy minister from the Ministry of Finance that the stress test is all done and everything is very good, but the Auditor General has not given you a clean check on that very critical component for CMHC.
You are doing a great job on other things, but when it comes to contingent liabilities all I have to look at is what happened about 10 or 12 years back in the U.S., when Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae collapsed and led to all the financial crisis.
I'll quote the Auditor General's remarks, that the need “to address all significant risks helps mitigate financial risks to the Government of Canada and to the Canadian taxpayer.”
I saw that in your prepared remarks—and I was surprised—you did not emphasize the stress test, but in your verbal remarks you changed some of the things, which was quite interesting and quite welcome, too.
Going back to this contingent liability and the stress test, I'll ask this to the Auditor General's office. Do you have expertise in evaluating the methodology used by CMHC to do the stress test?