Finance committee  It is too early to say with any degree of confidence that we know exactly how this is going to play out. There has been a short-term effect. It is clear that it has in some circumstances.... As one would expect, fewer first-time homebuyers are qualifying for a five-year rate, b

Finance committee  To be clear with respect to first-time homebuyers and the interest rate stress test, what we've done is we've extended the test from a segment of the market where it had already existed. It had already been in place for borrowing under five years; now it's in place for mortgages

Finance committee  I don't know if I could answer the question of when, but I could answer the question “under what circumstances”. Obviously we've taken these measures over a series of years, in the last year two times, to address circumstances arising from a low interest rate environment. An abi

Finance committee  In large measure, the development of the lenders in the marketplace relying on portfolio insurance was a product of the fact that the risks associated with the lending could be transferred to the government.

Finance committee  I just wanted to note, as has been noted by the Bank of Canada in its financial system review, that the level of vulnerability is rising rapidly and the number of borrowers who have levels of loan-to-income of over 450% has increased significantly across the country, particularly

Finance committee  When we think about stability risks, we think about them from two perspectives: the perspective of the system, which is largely the institutions that provide the loan and their stability, and also the borrower vulnerability. In this case, we were looking very much at the borrow

Finance committee  I can't comment on that at this point in time. I can, however, point to the fact that the national housing strategy, which is under way under Minister Duclos, is looking at support for forms of social and affordable housing. The consultations have taken place and the decision is

Finance committee  I can, by all means. We have now made six changes, six adjustments to the rules for mortgage insurance since the crisis in 2009. In all of those cases, the announcements were made without consultation, in a formal sense, with the marketplace. Having said that, I can assure you

Finance committee  We reduced the access to the support by the taxpayer for those firms that were reliant upon it.

Finance committee  We anticipated that there would be some transitional issues associated with the adoption of these rules and that the marketplace would adjust over time. We would not predict an increase in mortgage rates, but we would say it would be, in the circumstances, possible that they woul

Finance committee  Again, looking at this from the broader perspective, it was a public policy decision to—

Finance committee  Yes, I'll get to your questions, if you don't mind.

Finance committee  Thank you. We were looking at it from this point of view: what is a right amount of support to provide, by the taxpayer, to the marketplace? In this case we were aligning the same profile of risk for the high- and the low-ratio mortgages.

Finance committee  Overall levels of non-performance in mortgages are low across Canada generally.

Finance committee  The risk here is that you have a situation wherein marketplaces and in markets where they're fuelled by low interest rates, you have a growth in the market and a provision of credit backed by the taxpayer, which leads people into situations of undue risk and ultimately threatens