Industry challenges Ottawa

Brokers met with opposition politicians with the hopes of eventually having the recent mortgage rules tweaked

Industry challenges Ottawa
Brokers met with opposition politicians with the hopes of eventually having the recent mortgage rules tweaked.

Three brokers met with Conservative Finance Critic Gerard Deltell and Conservative Whip Gordon Brown to explain just how far-reaching and impactful the recent mortgage rules might be.

“Our goal was to bring attention to the opposition the impact the changes were having. It was just to say ‘hey is there anything being done?’ Carla Gervais, a member of the Verico network who, along with Corinna Smith Gatcke of Verico and Faye Walsh of Dominion Lending Centres met with the politicians, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “We’re hoping tweaks will be made to the past changes.”

The meeting lasted about an hour, with the three brokers offering expert commentary from Verico economist Michael Campbell and Mortgage Professionals Canada.

The purpose of the meeting was to have the government representatives present the feedback to the House of Commons.

Instead, they have promised to bring it to the attention of the Finance Committee and request a study be done on the economic impact of the changes as well as the unintended consequences of them.

Should the committee refuse, the opposition will bring the issue up to the House.

The meeting attendees will now provide the politicians with a brief by February 1.

The following are the issues broached in the meeting;

• Impact for First-time home buyers to get into the housing market and affordability
• Impact of a housing slowdown when it is the top industry in 7 of 10 provinces
• Impact on small communities
• Impact on DND transfers
• Increased costs for refinances with a lack of competition in a relative risk free portfolio