Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to say a few words about housing in Canada.
We have before us today a bill to make some changes to the CMHC. I emphasize that home ownership is a cherished value in Canada.
For most of my generation when we graduated from university we got married and the first thing we did was plan to purchase that first house. It is incredible when I think about it. At that time my wife and I chose to live on one salary. We decided that she would be a full time mom to our children. We were able to borrow the money and make the payments on my income of the day. I am sure everyone will be pleased to know and young people will be especially pleased to know that my salary when I was first working in my profession was a little under $6,000 a year. With that I was able to borrow money and start our first home.
A young couple starting today cannot do that. They cannot afford to have their children. They cannot afford to have a house unless they are both working. Even then with all of the taxes and the GST on top of all of that, it is really tough for young people nowadays to get started.
The bigger issue by far is the affordability of homes in this country. CMHC at least in theory and in its philosophy is supposed to support the notion of making housing more affordable. Through the CMHC the government, the taxpayer, takes on a certain amount of the risk of providing the money to purchase homes. That is one of the things government can do but I think the government should have done it in the past. I am talking about the governments of the past 30 years. We will go all the way back to 1970.
The governments since then have racked up so much debt and increased the payments of interest on that debt. I would hold the Liberal government, the Conservative government after that and the present Liberal government accountable for that. Young people nowadays have such a high tax load that it is very difficult for them to get their own housing.
I am basically supportive of measures that would provide for the ownership of homes or that would make it possible for young people to own their own homes. It is a good model of housing that we have. It is quite different from some countries where the thought of owning your own home or your own apartment is totally elusive. It is part of the dream, part of the initiative, part of the psyche of our country that can help us in this ongoing problem of productivity. It motivates us. There is something special about being able to own your own place, to make your own decisions on how you decorate it and how you live.
I have some concerns about the bill. I have some concerns about CMHC extending its industry around the world. I wish we would concentrate on the problems in this area within our own country. We certainly support helping other nations to a degree through our foreign affairs department and through our humanitarian efforts around the world. However when it comes to something like this, CMHC should concentrate on Canadian enterprise, Canadian housing, and not get involved in other countries to that extent.
The other thing that is somewhat troubling is that CMHC expends taxpayers' money, or at least it has the potential of doing so. It is supposed to be designed in such a way that it turns a small profit or operates evenly, but it does have the potential of spending public money. It should always be held accountable through the minister and through parliament to the taxpayers. This bill falls short in that regard.
There should be some amendments made to it so that the Canadian taxpayer is protected and we do not give a blank cheque to the minister to spend as much money as he or she wishes. We like to think that would not be out of control. Accountability is always important to make sure that does not happen.
I conclude by saying that a bill like this one deserves some level of support because there are some good things in it but amendments should be made. I emphasize over and over again that our first obligation to young people and young families in our country in terms of home ownership is to reduce their taxes so they have enough of their earnings left over and they can pay for their mortgages and own their own homes.