Finance committee  I won't repeat all the aspects of the charter, because I did that earlier. It is designed to work in conjunction with the FCAC mortgage guidelines that were put out in July. I think it is through FCAC that Canadians who feel that they aren't being well treated by their financial institutions should seek some assistance.

Finance committee  Financial institutions will report back to FCAC regularly.

Finance committee  I would encourage you to reach out to FCAC, but yes, there is reporting going back to FCAC.

Finance committee  As the deputy minister said, we are in very frequent contact with the FIs and also with the OSFI. Certainly it's the OSFI's main responsibility to ensure that the capital levels, the liquidity levels, are sufficient so that these banks remain stable, robust and able to withstand shocks.

Finance committee  I would assume you're not a homeowner at risk, but if you went into RBC and said, “Look, I'm unemployed. I'm about to lose my house. I can't pay my mortgage”, the banks are not interested in repossessing your house.

Finance committee  They will work with you. I think that gives you a list of possible options that the bank could present to you while you work your way through this.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question, MP Thompson. The Canada mortgage bonds program is a very important one in particular for the construction of purpose-built, multi-unit residential units. One of the biggest challenges in building new units is the cost of financing and interest. For borrowers to finance these projects, it's appreciably cheaper, in the order of 100 to 200 basis points—so 1% to 2%—to borrow using government-guaranteed funds and government-insured funds by going through and getting multi-unit mortgage insurance from CMHC.

Finance committee  Thank you, Deputy Minister. Thank you for the question. I'll speak a bit to the new mortgage charter, which is, I think, what you're referring to. This really brings together and highlights certain things with respect to mortgage holders who are under stress, those who hold mortgages on their principal residence.