Mr. Speaker, this week in the finance committee we heard alarming news that part of the Liberal government's changes to mortgage regulations is that refinancing a mortgage will no longer be CMHC insurable. What this means is that if people are refinancing their home to access their equity, the costs of doing that are going to greatly increase as a result of much higher interest rates.
At committee we heard that Canadians refinance for many reasons: to invest in a small business, home renovations, to buy out a spouse at divorce, long labour strikes or lockouts, unemployment, debt consolidation, and more. Even the Liberals' own witnesses chastised this damaging new policy that will harm middle-class Canadians.
Fortunately enough, Liberal members of the finance committee voted with the official opposition to bring the finance minister before the committee, so that he can explain why he thinks middle-class Canadians should pay higher interest costs when they need to access their home equity.