Human Resources committee  Very much so. You hit both nails on the head there. No lender wants to have to liquidate a whole bunch of properties. It's quite an expensive and labour-intensive process, and you really do create dislocations for families, which nobody really wants. You also don't want to create a glut of inventory in any given market.

Human Resources committee  Yes, I'm certainly happy to. Quite simply, when the mortgage deferral programs were first created, all banks and lenders, as regulated by OSFI, have to retain additional minimum capital for any loans that are non-performing. It's prudent, of course. They need to have a stockpile of cash in the event that the loans that are currently in arrears don't ever actually find their footing and make their way to repayment.

Human Resources committee  Unfortunately in that instance, I'm not sure we can do very much. Something like the pricing of the raw materials is very much a supply and demand constraint. You can't really legislate your way into securable pricing on that, unfortunately.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much indeed for the question. How long do I have?

Human Resources committee  There's definitely going to be pricing pressures on real estate for the foreseeable future. I think there's a shortage of supply of housing almost everywhere, and it's been exacerbated by a number of different varying factors, especially in the already quite dense areas in Toronto and Vancouver.

Human Resources committee  I do, only to say please get in touch with my office directly if you actually have those scenarios with constituents in your riding. We will certainly do our best to assist anybody with whatever expert knowledge is needed. We have members throughout the continuum, so we'll certainly do our best to help.

Human Resources committee  There is an awful lot of transaction activity across the country, I think. We are running a series of consumer surveys. The first of those reports was released just last week. Every six weeks between now and the end of the year we'll be going back out to consumers to get their sense.

Human Resources committee  I have not, actually, until this moment. Elaine, is there anything from your side?

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. I apologize for answering in English, but my French is very bad. We decided that an additional six months' extension on the mortgage deferrals was required because the people who we think are most significantly impacted by the COVID-19 shutdown are the folks working in travel, tourism and hospitality-related industries.

Human Resources committee  It's difficult to comment on that without having a really good understanding of what the proposed structure of that tax would look like. I think it would be disastrous to simply implement, as a switch, a 50% capital gains tax on the equity for everybody all at the same time. I envision that, if such a thing were ever actually to be contemplated to be implemented, it would have to be tiered over time.

Human Resources committee  It has to me. You will know yourself that, once the news actually broke that CMHC was studying such a thing, we reached out to your office directly. I think you're one of the first to assure us that.... I think CMHC, probably quite rightly, has certain funding arms to pursue academic research to examine all areas of the housing continuum, so the topic of such an equity tax is probably not off limits for anybody who's being funded through that, but I don't think it's an indication, and I certainly don't receive it as an indication, that there's a particular policy examination for such a thing at this time.

Human Resources committee  I think a tax on equity would alter an awful lot of things, actually, and would probably be really detrimental in a number of different ways, but to be fair, I think that the study that's being conducted by CMHC is actually really more through an academic grant that's been provided to a think tank in B.C.

Human Resources committee  As I understand the structure of what has been proposed, because the tax is due at the time that you sell your home, I don't think it would make much difference to folks who are considering entering into the space, but it definitely does alter the value proposition for folks who previously would have been considering it as potentially something to pursue, and not only for the security of having a place that's your own where a landlord cannot sell the property out from under you or move a family in.

Human Resources committee  Thanks, Elaine. Switching gears somewhat, the industry, with government support, has been providing mortgage payment deferrals to many mortgage holders. Current Canadian Bankers Association statistics suggest that 16% of all mortgage holders have at some point since March deferred at least one payment.

Finance committee  That's a very good question. I think in normal times, I would have approached that response with a red-tape reduction and an expediting of processes to make sure that permits could be issued more quickly. Currently, considering just the safety of the individuals who will be creating those buildings and be on the construction sites, I would want to put that first and foremost.