Finance committee  The original budget was a billion dollars, but it's already over budget. It's six or eight years away, so we'd have to guess that it's about $1.3 billion or more. Personally, I think it's crazy. That's all I can say.

Finance committee  There are a million different better uses for the money—yes, absolutely.

Finance committee  There are only three courtrooms. That's what the whole plan calls for, just three courtrooms.

Finance committee  I think there are about 25 or 30.

Finance committee  Reasonably, it's freeze it for everybody. The bottom line is that it's overly leveraged money. You have 20% or 25% that's coming from another residence, so that's borrowed and mortgage interest is being paid on it. Then you have another 75% or 80% mortgage on the rental property you're purchasing or [Technical difficulty—Editor].

Finance committee  Whether it's new construction or an existing property, 100% financing of a rental purchase is essentially unreasonable. You're borrowing money that you're paying mortgage interest on and making payments on for the down payment, and then you're also getting a mortgage on the property itself.

Finance committee  The rental market changed into one in which groups of investors formed companies and built small townhouse units, effectively, small townhouse groupings, and also low-rise five-storey and six-storey buildings for multi-families. It was professionally run. Here's another terrible thing about what we do in Canada.

Finance committee  We experienced it last year or earlier this year, I should say, when interest rates dropped from the fives and sixes into the fours, and there was a sudden burst of activity in the housing market. Purchases started happening. It's going to be a little different this time. If you read the economic tea leaves and if this really is a recession that we're entering into in a meaningful way, people won't be quite as eager once mortgage rates drop if they're concerned about the future of their employment.

Finance committee  I want to thank the committee for having me back. As a quick note, I spent a day observing how things work in Ottawa, and I have to say, people show up on time, stay late, are prepared and ask good questions. The clerk and his team do a great job. I spend 40 hours a week immersed in social media and nobody takes as much abuse as politicians, so I salute you for the work that you do.

Finance committee  To refresh a few ideas that I've spoken to the committee about previously, the banning of short-term rentals is a fantastic idea. Even though it falls mainly within the provincial world, maybe there's some way to adjust or consider federal-provincial transfers in a way that would encourage provinces to bring an end to this terrible scourge—effectively, illegal hotels—which removes inventory for first-time homeowners and removes inventory from long-term rentals.

Finance committee  Ultimately, I just hope we don't repeat mistakes we made in the past. Ultralow interest rates and stimulus in the demand side create astronomically high price increases. It's not in every part of Canada, certainly, but in parts of Ontario and British Columbia we saw at some points that prices were rising 2% a month, which is something we must guard against in the future.

Finance committee  The general appearance is that the agencies don't communicate. The simplest reaction should be this: For people in genuine financial hardship.... We have this incredible acceleration of interest rates—the steepest and fastest in the history of this country. If they are in genuine trouble on their renewal and can't afford to make those payments—and that should be provable financial hardship—there's no reason not to extend to 30 years or even 35 years.

Finance committee  There was a comment earlier about getting back to 2% interest rates. The 2% interest rates are genuinely dangerous. They genuinely are. There is a reason prices expanded so rapidly in the decade of extremely low interest rates. The bottom line is.... People alluded to the idea of why we are investing so much money in real estate.

Finance committee  Sure. You're looking at 100,000 units immediately, at least. This would come on stream within the course of one year. Let's face it. If you can't make money on your short-term Airbnb, you're going to find a way to get out of it. They will come on the market just that quickly.

Finance committee  The fear of it is actually causing reductions in Toronto pricing right now, as we speak. The prices of very tiny condos have started to drop as people unload them because their belief is there will be further restrictions on Airbnb. The City of Toronto developed restrictions, and the response to that has been the sale of these units.