Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate in this debate on private member's Bill C-285, an act to amend the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Act related to the distribution of profits to the provinces.
I think the bill, in terms of its intent, is a laudable goal. In fact, it certainly covers some of the objectives which a number of other programs within the Government of Canada already share.
The bill basically calls for the distribution of profits from CMHC, being a crown corporation, and the appropriation of the profits and the reserves from the crown corporation would be distributed to the provinces on a per capita basis. The bill provides for somewhat of a formula for doing this.
Ultimately, the objective of the bill is to provide for social and affordable housing purposes, to encourage the supply of quality housing at affordable prices, to increase housing choices for the people in the provinces and to contribute to the creation and development of housing co-operatives.
Prior to becoming a member of Parliament, I had the opportunity to serve on the board of the Peel Regional Housing Authority. It was a jointly funded housing authority with the Province of Ontario in cooperation with the region of Peel and Peel non-profit, which is the region's own not for profit housing service.
The Peel Regional Housing Authority took care of some 2,000 housing units. Half of them were senior units, who usually paid their rent on time, and the units were well kept. The other half were family units, 75% of which were lone parent situations, mother-led families usually, often with financial difficulties.
It is an extremely difficult job to be in the social or so-called affordable housing business. It takes the collaboration of not only the municipalities, the regions and the provinces, but also the federal government. A number of initiatives have evolved over the years to ensure that some of these objectives are being appropriately dealt with, whether it be rent geared to income arrangements or rent supplement where people are permitted to pay what they can afford, and it deals with developers.
Housing is not solely a federal responsibility. Social housing is a provincial responsibility and that has been seconded to the regional level of government. I know that our offices often deal with these situations. People who have the pressures of the demands for affordable housing invariably have other problems that they have to deal with. It may be children's issues or personal financial issues and people are looking for some advocacy by their member of Parliament to help them out of a difficult situation. Many times they have other social situations and disabilities within their children. It is probably one of the toughest areas, I must admit, that has been prevalent in my work as a member of Parliament over some 13 years, and I have tried to be sensitive to the needs.
This particular bill is sensitive to those needs and seeks to look to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which is a crown corporation, but is also a commercial business. It has reserve requirements based on its housing stock and on capitalization needs. There are established financial standards within the office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. It operates within the guidelines provided to it to ensure there is proper coverage for its portfolio and for its exposures and liabilities, and it must be competitive. When we think about it, some $2 billion is being made available for the purpose of achieving its overall objectives.
In just a general sense, CMHC, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, lends money to individuals who do not have enough money for down payments. It offers, for an additional cost, mortgage loan insurance which enables people to buy houses. Potential buyers, who only have 5% of the capital needed to buy a house, can receive a mortgage loan from CMHC in addition to the mortgage loan they receive from the bank. As we can see, a significant role is being played.
There is another aspect to the bill, or that is related to the bill, that must also be taken into account. It has to do with a term that we have discussed quite a bit in this Parliament and that is accountability.
The profitability or the operational income or loss of any crown corporation is consolidated into the consolidated revenue fund. In fact, the financial position and performance, the surplus or deficit for a year, of the Government of Canada on an annual basis includes the operations of these crown corporations to the extent that there are prior year surpluses that have been accumulated to provide the financial protection for the exposure that CMHC has made. These have already been accounted for. To the extent that we take these profits out, one of the things that it will do on an annual basis is actually, on a comparative basis, reduce the surplus or increase the deficit of the government's financial position, simply because prior years had the profitability from this commercial venture.
The other issue is that the bill seeks to have this money simply transferred to the provinces, effectively on a per capita basis. If we were to do that, we would be dealing with matters which relate, not only to equalization but also to program funding, which we have. It means that cash, over and above which has been agreed upon by the provinces, would now be appropriated to the provinces. However, once the federal government loses that or delivers the money, we do not have a string to say that the money is there for this purpose and it should be used for that purpose.
However, what if it is not? What if we do not achieve our objectives? How does the federal government that taxes Canadians to achieve the revenue requirements to support programs and operate crown corporations, to run viable commercial ventures in areas where Canadians need support, and to make a reasonable profit competitive with the industry in which they are participating, take those moneys, which belong to Canadian taxpayers and transfer it to the provinces and not have some sort of accountability? The bill does not provide for that accountability and it is probably one of the biggest flaws of the bill.
It is not good enough for any level of government to collect money basically from its constituents, its taxpayers, and to use that money to give to someone else for whatever purpose without having those rigours.
Crown corporations are subject to review and audit by the Auditor General. If those funds are being transferred, the operation and use of those funds would be outside of the purview of the Auditor General. We would not even have a mechanism to ensure that the funds were properly safeguarded and used for the purpose for which they were intended.
As we can see, in general I am sure that all hon. members will agree that the spirit of the member's bill, Bill C-285, is certainly laudable. It is certainly an objective of all Canadians to ensure that affordable housing is in reasonable supply for those who need it.
Social housing is a slightly different issue because now we are talking about those who are unable to have housing. They would be on the streets otherwise and these are generally outside the purview of the Government of Canada in its role as it works. To suggest that this is dealing with both social and affordable housing issues would tend to provide an intrusion of the Government of Canada into provincial jurisdictions. This raises yet another issue and certainly there has to be respect. The Constitution provides for the constitutional responsibilities that have been assigned to the provinces.
Having said all that, I want to congratulate the member on raising an important issue about the need to be sensitive to the needs of Canadians with regard to affordable social housing, but unfortunately, this bill is perhaps not the instrument we need to enhance that objective.