Finance committee  The difficulty here is that we're referring on one hand to a stock of mortgages underwritten and on the other hand to a flow of premiums written each year.

Finance committee  I don't have a number at hand.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman and Mr. Adler, yes, I do. In fact, I would be tempted to go just a little bit further to be just a little more prescriptive and say not that the minister may request but that CMHC shall provide reporting equivalent to that which is done by the private insurers.

Finance committee  The key point, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Adler, is clarity from the point of view of parliamentary oversight and oversight by the public of the risks to which Canadians are exposed through CMHC's mortgage underwriting and mortgage insurance activities and securitization activities. Ag

Finance committee  Merci, monsieur. I think, for the most part, I would agree. There was what one might think of as an unholy alliance in operation in the housing finance, insurance, and securitization market in the U.S. There absolutely was political pressure to extend lending, where arguably and

Finance committee  The benefits one would look for are through choice in a range of products. We've been working within the 90% framework more or less since the 1990s, and to this point mortgage insurance in Canada has mostly been an “any colour you like so long as it's black” market. There hasn't

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Thank you. I'd be delighted to. The situation in the U.S. was a little bit different and it certainly formed a good flashing red light, so to speak. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac weren't the only government-sponsored enterprises who underwrote mortgage lending, and they continue t

Finance committee  I think it is a step in the right direction. Forty-year amortizations may have their place in the world, but not in this one, not right now. More important, I think, is the idea that we should “set it and forget it” with respect to amortization standards and the rules regarding

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, if I may take that question, I don't think anyone would recommend that private mortgage insurers be backed 100% by the Government of Canada, or certainly not without appropriate risk compensation in the form of risk adjustment premiums paid to the Government of Cana

Finance committee  We're simply talking about expanding the maximum amount that can be underwritten by the Government of Canada. If the marketplace is willing to support that, under prudent underwriting terms there's really no reason it shouldn't.

Finance committee  That was Ms. Londerville.

Finance committee  That's unclear. What is clear, though, is that--

Finance committee  Absolutely; however, Mr. Pacetti, that assumes that the vendors of the insurance product are facing roughly the same cost structure. The fact is that the private insurer has much more costly capital because it is not backed by--

Finance committee  Well, to be clear, we're talking about bringing into legislation a contract framework that has previously governed the relationship between the Government of Canada, through the Department of Finance, and the private insurers. Transparency is almost everywhere to be desired, an