Finance committee  Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the members of the committee. On behalf of the over 12,000 members of Mortgage Professionals Canada, thank you for providing us with the opportunity to take part in the discussions today. I am Paul Taylor, president and CE

Finance committee  As are we.

Finance committee  Right now, there's about a 240-basis-point gap between the insured rates and the A-class uninsured rates and the 5.19% benchmark.

Finance committee  You are exactly right. Bond yields have been falling, since probably October of last year, and the bank's posted rates have really not followed the direction of that reduction, so there's been a widening gap between the qualification rate and the actual contract rate. This means,

Finance committee  That's right.

Finance committee  I don't know if that discounts the poor policy rationale of using the Bank of Canada rate, though. I do think the banks use that rate for interest rate differential penalties and other internal business practices. They certainly don't have a concern about public policy rationale

Finance committee  Yes, that's a reasonably accurate statement. One of the largest concerns about it is that there are pockets of the country that have been significantly and disproportionately impacted by this policy. Economies vary, as you well know, from city to city, and rural region to rural

Finance committee  I don't think they are any more or less at risk than the larger community. The biggest trigger for mortgage default is loss of employment, which really can affect anybody in almost any geography. First-time homebuyers are certainly a community that has had the hardest time qualif

Finance committee  That was probably from our report written by our chief economist, Will Dunning. It was a cumulative total of his estimate of the number of folks who would have been pushed out of potentially being able to purchase a home following the introduction of the test. That report, I'm gu

Finance committee  We also continue to recommend an exemption to the stress test where borrowers have paid as agreed through their initial term and wish to move their mortgage at renewal. Maintaining the current requirement is anti-competitive and, frankly, anti-consumer. Canadians with a proven pa

Finance committee  Thanks very much indeed for the introduction, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the opportunity to address the committee today. Mortgage Professionals Canada is a national industry organization representing mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders, mortgage insurers and technology service

Finance committee  I'm not sure I agree.

Finance committee  There's not too much analysis required on that. Since the mortgage is going to be insured, you're probably going to get the best available rate in the market. In fact, if you have a down payment of less than 20%, because that mortgage is insured, you're generally actually qualify

Finance committee  We don't think so, no—

Finance committee  —because the qualification criteria are effectively the same.