In 1997, a young family purchased a mobile home in the town of Tumbler Ridge in my riding. They received confirmation that they had qualified for a CMHC insured mortgage.
The family invested their life savings, $20,000, in the 5% down payment, purchase of the lot and the utility hook-ups. Two months after settling into their new home, they got a terrible phone call.
CMHC had designated Tumbler Ridge a “special risk community”. This meant that anyone employed by or living with a worker of the community's largest employer, Quintette coal mine, was ineligible for a CMHC insured mortgage, yet employees of the other companies qualified.
Had this family not been approved by CMHC, they would have invested the additional 20% in their mortgage rather than property improvements. Instead they lost their home and their life savings.
Canadians living in resource based communities deserve to be treated equally. As I have done countless time in the past, I call on the government to end the policy of discrimination.