The week saw the association present its housing and mortgage market recommendations to elected representatives
Rising prices and inventory issues in Canada’s housing market were prominent discussion points during Hill Week in Ottawa, which saw Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) members meet with elected representatives to present recommendations on a range of topics of concern to the mortgage industry.
Joe Pinheiro, chair of MPC, told Canadian Mortgage Professional that this year’s meetings had been marked by a more personal tone than previous years, with Members of Parliament expressing particular concern about those price and supply problems.
“I think MPs are starting to feel those [issues] closer to home – they were asking questions about their own situation or those of their family members,” he said. “Obviously, housing is a topic that hits home to a lot of people.
“We’re concerned about supply, and housing doesn’t seem to be aligned with immigration priorities. I think a few politicians acknowledged that this is a concern, that we should be better aligned.”
Record-low levels of supply in Canada’s housing market have arrived as the federal government announced plans to welcome around 1.5 million new Canadians to the country by the end of 2024.
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MPC’s three central proposals during the week were for an increase to the insured mortgage cutoff to $1.25 million, the reintroduction of 30-year insured amortizations for first-time buyers, and the harmonization of mortgage stress testing to 2% above the contracted rate.
Paul Taylor (pictured top), president and CEO of MPC, said that the recent agreement struck between the governing Liberals and the New Democratic Party (NDP) could technically be a positive development for the prospect of 30-year insured amortizations, although its implications for other housing market policies were unclear.
“The election platform for the NDP [in 2021] included a 30-year am for first-time buyers, so I know that they’re in lockstep with our thinking on that,” he said. “The challenge, though, is it also guarantees now that the Liberals will be in power for a full four years, which in their mind might mean that they don’t really have to deliver on any of their election promises for three more years.
“It’s hard to get a sense of what might be included in the budget [due April 07]. I would say on balance, the agreement definitely increases the odds of a 30-year am being reintroduced. But it potentially also means that, unfortunately, some of the more urgent things like the purchase price cap increase for insurance might not be in this budget, but rather the next one.”
That would be disappointing news, Taylor said, because that’s an inflationary-based policy whose impact will be lessened the longer policymakers wait to implement it.
Pinheiro said representatives had largely been “very receptive” to MPC’s proposals, with that recommendation to increase the insurability limit to $1.25 million appearing a “no-brainer” for many of the MPs they had spoken with.
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“I think [that’s] because we’re not asking for pie-in-the-sky type things. They look at it and go, ‘I don’t know why we’re not doing this. Let’s move forward because it makes a lot of sense,’” he said.
“We present it in such a manner that it’s very palatable to them; it’s not a complicated issue, it’s something we can do.”
J.P. Boutros, MPC’s director, government regulations and regulatory affairs, told CMP that the week had been an excellent opportunity to bring the mortgage brokering community together, with 45 volunteers representing the association from across Canada.
It also marked the return of in-person meetings following the largely virtual arrangements of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Boutros saying that face-to-face interaction allowed more of a personal touch and better insight into MPs’ thinking.
“We really look forward to setting up regional meetings with groups of MPs,” he said. “We held a few select virtual meetings that had regional representation from our side, which will help us set up conversations and relationships with parties’ regional caucus groups going forward.”
Pinheiro said the week also affirmed that the engagement of membership is now “greater than it’s ever been,” something that he said was particularly evident with participation in MPC’s charter calls.
“The amount of people that want to get involved shows that everybody’s unified,” he said, “[and] that engagement and unity is at an all-time high within the association.”
