MLI Select and the Political Push Toward 50-Year Mortgages
When Donald Trump began discussing the idea of 50-year mortgages, many Canadians were surprised. But in Canada, this concept has already been quietly normalized since 2022, when CMHC launched MLI Select—a mortgage loan insurance product that can stretch amortization periods up to 50 years for multi-unit projects.
Now, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, the federal government is pouring even more money into programs like MLI Select. To call this a coincidence is naïve. These long amortizations didn’t arise from market conditions—they came from a federal ESG agenda that bypasses normal economics and outsources risk to taxpayers.
A Public Insurer With No Competition Creates Market Distortions
The core problem with MLI Select is simple: there is no market component. CMHC is a public insurer with no competitors, meaning it can invent premiums, discounts, and underwriting rules out of thin air—rules completely disconnected from real risk, real pricing, or real profitability.
A private mortgage insurer must operate efficiently or it loses money. CMHC, by contrast, can be inefficient indefinitely because every mistake, every miscalculation, and every ESG-driven “incentive” is absorbed by the taxpayer.
When CMHC offers a discount for energy upgrades or below-market rents, these are not cost-savings generated by a business—they are political subsidies disguised as financing tools. And like all ESG financing, the program cannot survive without continuous government intervention.
The EV Market Shows the Consequences of Government Distorted Pricing
To understand the danger, compare MLI Select to the electric vehicle market. Private auto insurers are already refusing to deeply discount EVs because repairing them is expensive, parts are scarce, labour is limited, and technology is proprietary.
Many EVs are declared total losses after minor accidents because the real cost to repair them is enormous. This is why China is now littered with EV graveyards—a direct result of government subsidies interfering with normal market pricing.
Apply this same logic to MLI Select: when a federal insurer takes on complex, long-term risks at below-market premiums, it encourages inefficiency, poor risk assessment, and ultimately higher long-term costs. If a multi-unit building built under MLI Select develops maintenance, energy, or structural problems—problems the discounted insurance never properly accounted for—those failures ricochet through the housing system and eventually to taxpayers.
MLI Select Masks True Costs and Inflates Housing Prices
MLI Select is marketed as a tool to expand affordable housing, but in reality it inflates construction costs, increases regulatory complexity, and hides the true price of housing development. Private-sector financing forces builders to operate efficiently, control costs, and plan responsibly.
CMHC’s ESG-aligned incentives, however, reward developers for chasing subsidies instead of managing risk. The program offers higher loan-to-value ratios, artificially cheap premiums, and extremely long amortizations—terms no private lender would offer without proportional risk pricing. This is not affordability; it is federally engineered debt expansion masquerading as social policy.
ESG Points: A Political Tool Masquerading as Financial Innovation
Launched in March 2022, MLI Select ties mortgage insurance benefits to a points-based ESG scoring model—affordability, energy efficiency, and accessibility. The more a developer aligns with federal ESG priorities, the more public money they receive in the form of discounted insurance and extended amortization.
This is not a neutral policy; it deeply intertwines private housing with political agendas, and forces taxpayers to absorb risks the market would never touch. None of these projects are profitable on their own—CMHC makes them appear viable through subsidies, creating an illusion of affordability while pushing long-term costs into the future.
Federal Intervention Is Amplifying Provincial and Municipal Failures
This is why Canada’s housing crisis continues to worsen. Federal intervention compounds provincial and municipal failures, distorts market signals, and encourages dependence on government programs. When inefficiency becomes profitable, efficiency dies. ESG housing, like EV subsidies, is not saving the environment or lowering costs—it is creating hidden waste, massive long-term liabilities, and systems that collapse the moment taxpayer support is removed.
When Subsidies End, the Crisis Will Intensify
Without CMHC’s intervention, many of these MLI Select projects simply would not be affordable, which proves the point: this is not a market solution. It is a political program that inflates housing costs while pretending to solve them. Canada doesn’t need more artificial subsidies—we need real market discipline. And until policymakers recognize that federally engineered ESG housing models are inherently inflationary, the crisis will continue.
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