Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for allowing me to proceed. It has obviously been a pleasure to start this speech. I hope the House has heard the parts I have already delivered, but I want to continue from where I was.
What I was getting at was some things that we want to do in the housing market. In particular, I was talking about the fact that we want to take action to crack down on the people who break the rules, who evade taxes or use real estate for money laundering, making housing less affordable for the people who need it.
We want to help more middle-class families find an affordable home today. We are offering new, targeted support for first-time homebuyers. This includes increasing the RRSP homebuyers’ plan withdrawal limit to $35,000 from $25,000, to reflect the realities of house prices today. It includes a new initiative called the first-time homebuyer incentive, which will allow eligible first-time homebuyers to finance a portion of their home purchase through a shared equity mortgage with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC. The incentive would give eligible buyers a new source of funds they can use to help keep their monthly costs lower—