In March, Maclean’s warned that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the quasi-governmental insurer that underwrites $500 billion of residential mortgages, answers to no one—not Canada’s top financial regulator or even the minister of finance. That all quietly changed last month when Ottawa passed a law that puts the CMHC strictly under the watchful gaze of both the finance minister and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI).

With the new law, CMHC must hand over “prescribed books, records and information” and make those records available to the public. The legislation also allows the minister to set capital requirements and impose fees to compensate the government for the risks it assumes by backstopping mortgages.

CMHC has always said the money it sets aside to cover insurance losses exceeds that required by OSFI. But Finn Poschmann, a C.D. Howe researcher, told the House of Commons finance committee the new law is overdue. “There are a number of informal arrangements through which our oversight agencies are able to have a look at what it is that the CMHC does and the risks to which taxpayers are exposed,” he said. “However, it is an informal arrangement. It’s good to have this in legislation.”

It will be very interesting to see what if any changes take place.

If you’re wanting to do something, better get it done quick!

604-273-2002 or on the web

Mark Fidgett, Your Vancouver Mortgage Broker For Life

www.notapennydown.com

604-273-2002

P.S. Who’s the next person you know who needs Help with their Stuff?
Be sure to give me a call so we can help them get on that path!

In·di·an Giv·er n. (ca. 1848):  A Federal Government which gives something to another and then takes it back.

Wow, that sounds familiar, huh.

I guess All the HUGE FINANCIAL brain power that went in to extending amortizations to 40 years, was for not.

Latest word on the street has the Feds once again monkeying around with amortizations and Down Payments.

Lowering the maximum length of amortizations for a mortgage, down to 30 years from 35.

Not to mention the latest condo conundrum: rules now being discussed would add 100% of condominium fees to the list of expenses that are measured against income to decide whether a buyer can afford a mortgage or not.

Presently, only 50% of the fee is considered.

Can you say Condo Discrimination…

Then there’s the talk about upping the downpayment from 5%…

These moves have the potential to squeeze thousands of consumers out of the market.

Maybe ONE day the powers that be will wake up and speak to someone who actually knows the business and is in the business of providing mortgages.

Until then, I guess it’s simply “Shoot first, ask questions later”

Mark Fidgett
Vancouver Mortgage Broker
Owner www.NotaPennyDown.com
604-273-2002