Thank you, Mr. Chairman and honourable members.

Every time I come here, I feel compelled to say how impressed I am by the operation of Parliament. I'm an old guy who only came to this late in life. It's always a pleasure to see the members. We may argue about policy, but I've come to learn that everybody here works hard and wants to accomplish something good for Canadians, so thank you for that. Thank you, all.

We are faced with some major changes in the CMHC proposals that we saw come through. They will be enacted soon, in December 15 and January 15. We're going to see a $1.5-million cap. This is interesting, because in the United States, the maximum cap for their program that mimics CMHC is $766,000. Somehow we need double than a nation with New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles to manage our socialized housing perspective. It's really quite amazing that these numbers are necessary. My constant refrain is that the price of houses in Canada—certainly in British Columbia and Ontario—is just incredibly high. Measures that support a $1.5-million starter home reasonably have to be called into question. Sure, there's a need for it, but should there be a need for it? At this point, we have to really stop and think.

The interesting move to re-enter the refinance business.... CMHC is re-entering the refinance business, which it left 14 or 15 years ago, to provide extra units in up to $2-million homes. You can get a mortgage up to $1.8 million if you add extra units to an existing residence. Again, it's extremely high, and it's very interesting that we're back in the refinance business at CMHC.

It's a good purpose. Sure, we'd all like more mile density in our cities. It just makes a lot of sense. However, that is an extraordinary number that Canadian taxpayers will eventually have to backstop. I know, and it's been a constant refrain that I tell everyone, that CMHC has delivered returns to the taxpayers for the last number of decades. It's not the other way around. However, the level of risk has been radically increased.

This brings me back to my favourite discussion, which is lending mortgage document fraud in Canada. It was announced in the budget in April that steps would be taken, studies would be made and the implementation would be on its way. In spite of the best efforts of the Department of Finance, it is becoming clear that CRA provides a certain level of resistance.

My eternal ask is that we simply duplicate what's been going on in the United States through direct digital linkage to the IRS. In the United States, the IRS confirms tax documents that have been provided by the borrower. It has done so for over two decades. This is an effortless, low-impact, privacy-guaranteed relationship between CRA and only large financial institutions. Nobody like me, a mortgage broker, is ever going to have access to this. It's only going to be through big financial institutions under great security and total privacy. Yet, there is nothing yet and nothing until possibly next year.

It is my fondest hope that we can finally end this problem of mortgage fraud through false income documents in Canada because, even though it's not rampant, even 1,000 is too many, and believe me, there are more than 1,000. With increased levels of taxpayer-backstopped CMHC mortgages with a $1.5-million cap, I would think that these issues are vital, extremely important and should be managed as quickly as humanly possible. That's a lot of risk: $1.5 million of backstopped mortgage amounts is a lot of money. There's no question we should do a great job of making sure those documents are all factual. It's easy. It is not even hard.

Finally, I have to talk about the idea that CMHC was founded on the concept of a first-time homebuyer. That's the foundation of CMHC. If you go back all of those decades, that's where it came from. Is it possible, in two of Canada's largest provinces, Ontario and British Columbia, for the average family with a combined income in Canada of about $105,000—it's a little higher in Ontario and British Columbia, where it's maybe up around $114,000—to have a chance to buy a home when the average prices in those provinces are upwards of a million dollars?

Sure, people could start with a tiny condo, but the reality of life is that any access to low-rise residential properties cruises at around $900,000 to a million dollars, and that is eight times their income. I'm an old, semi-retired mortgage broker, and for my generation, when I was in the house-buying business, it was about 2.5 to 3.5 times our income. My great ask—which is difficult, because it has a lot of provincial and municipal problems associated with it—is to find a way to adequately help young people get a home in Canada.

Thank you.