from left to right–Bill Morneau (Finance Minister), Brian d’Eon, Ranjit Dhaliwal
Tonight we met with the Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, to talk about the impact of the recent changes to the mortgage rules. He advised there are no plans for further tightening and was happy to hear from us that housing prices have started to soften, which was their intended goal. I stressed my concern about CMHC pulling bulk insurance and the impact it’s had on the smaller (mono line) lenders and the eventual impact of higher costs for borrowers, due to lack of competition. Essentially, he said he had no choice but to slow down the drastic increase in house prices–what the government perceives to be the number one threat to the Canadian economy.