Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to our witnesses for being here.
Ms. Bowers, I'll direct my questions to you in your leadership role with the CMHC.
Your website quotes your goal and the reason you're there. It says, “CMHC exists for a single reason: to make housing affordable for everyone in Canada.” I don't need to go through the statistics over the course of the last couple of years. In my neck of the woods in eastern Ontario, housing prices have doubled in the last five years. In the last year, we've seen an increase of about 26%. More people than ever before are discouraged in the market and have actually given up on home ownership entirely.
At the same time, your organization gave out, in 2020 and 2021, $48 million in performance bonuses to your staff. That averaged $12,000 for each employee and 94% of employees received a bonus. I think many Canadians, seeing that, would be very frustrated. For an organization that's mandated with affordable housing, seeing the report that was issued from the Auditor General 15 months ago about performance issues, delays and actually keeping to commitments that had been made by the government in your organization, there would rightfully be a lot of frustration there. Even some partner municipalities in my region continue to be frustrated with the application process, the delays and some of the extra red tape and extra things that are required to get a simple approval on an application to even build affordable housing in our region.
I want to ask you this from a change management perspective. You've had 15 months to reflect on the Auditor General's report that unfortunately concludes for CMHC a lot of what we see in other departments. Spending money is not a result. Actually, while money is being spent, fewer results are being achieved.
I won't ask you to detail the $48 million and how it's done. Since the last Auditor General's report, which concluded in quite damning performance issues and delays in processes, could you advise me, in your management role and working with the minister, if you've made any single change to how performance bonuses are issued within your department and organization?