Finance committee  They have to have 20% down and they have to go through a bank to get it.

Finance committee  Previous to that policy we had access to all the non-bank lenders that had various policies.

Finance committee  I can tell you that I started in 1994 as a loans officer at a credit union. The most we could discount a five-year rate was 0.25%, and that was for our absolute best client. Since brokers in the monoline industry have come along we've grown that. Now a normal discount is 2% off o

Finance committee  It sounds like a good idea, but the longer amortizations allow people to get into a home, keep that payment lower when they first move in, and then as they move along, they can increase their payments and pay it off faster. Just because it's a 30-year amortization doesn't mean it

Finance committee  It's gone.

Finance committee  Canadians work hard to pay that mortgage down and to build up that equity, and because of these changes, the vast majority of our lenders now can't do that because they are doing what we talked about with bulk insuring and selling off their books. They're not allowed to insure or

Finance committee  Our numbers are down in the last two months. We've lost probably 30%.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I agree. The biggest issue is the supply of homes for people to move into. We can keep hurting first-time buyers, but that's not going to stop this supply situation.

Finance committee  I wasn't, personally, but I believe that MPC, our previous group, and CAAMP were consulted.

Finance committee  Thank you. Of course, indebtedness is important and we have to review what it is, but a big makeup of that ratio is not mortgage debt. It's credit card debt and car loans, and those are areas that we're probably not going to get into here. Right now, the requirements for our cl

Finance committee  I'll echo this. Nobody I know was asked anything about these changes. As for the regional differences, it's huge. We're trying to solve this Vancouver-Toronto situation with these changes, and it's not effective. In fact, it's not even effective in Vancouver and Toronto. You're

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee. Thank you, fellow witnesses. I've been a practising mortgage broker since 1999 in the Vancouver area. I have a lending background going back to 1988. Our company serves both B.C. and Alberta. We have 130 mortgage brokers on our team, and w