CMHC to get a new name as part of rebranding effort
The federal agency charged with overseeing most things related to housing in Canada will be getting a new name, pending regulatory approval. For decades, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. has primarily focused on financing of home ownership, with what has been a secondary focus on housing affordability, CEO Evan Siddall told The Canadian Press last week.
Siddall says the general perception of CMHC is that it is a financial institution and while that is true to a degree, he said it overshadows the agency's efforts to find affordable homes for people, whether it's buying, renting or social housing.
“We've looked at this question of what our brand is, whether we could use something that was different even without a legislative change,” he said. “Those are all things that we've looked at and that I think actually we should do and we've talked about it pretty openly in the company.”
It's been suggested the new name will be along the lines of Housing Canada, which will be put to the 2,000 CMHC employees for their input.
“I would not blame other people for how they perceive us, because the only people who control that is us,” said Siddall.
CMHC is a key overseer of the federal government's national housing strategy, funded in the tens of billions of dollars in combined federal, provincial and private-sector funding and financing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an economic hurdle on the path to affordability.
About $1 billion worth of mortgage payments were deferred each month during the pandemic, says CMHC. The agency also said the number of Canadians likely to get ahead on their mortgage payments this year will be fewer than in 2019.
CMHC'S chief finance officer, Lisa Williams, maintains the agency is in a strong financial position to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 and to respond to any fluctuations in the housing market going forward.
CMHC reported net income of $566 million in the second quarter, up from $379 million during the same time last year, with arrears at 0.34 per cent. On the flip side, claims expenses shot up by 711 per cent, or $256 million, due to greater allocations for pandemic-related claims such as mortgages in deferral.