Canadian housing agency staff received nearly $27 million in bonuses in 2022

Aerial view of houses in Oshawa, Ont., seen from a Canadian forces Hercules on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg)

Staff at Canada's national housing agency received nearly $27 million in bonuses in 2022.

According to documents released through access to information requests and published by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, 2,292 employees at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) received $26,867,455 in bonuses last year. That's more than 90 per cent of staff at the crown corporation and an average of over $11,700 per person.

"Canadians need more homes, not more highly paid government executives and bureaucrats taking big bonuses," Canadian Taxpayers Federation director Franco Terrazzano told CTVNews.ca. "The government doesn't publish this information, but we believe Canadians deserve it."

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Records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation also show that the number of CMHC employees earning over $100,000 per year increased by 27 per cent between 2018 and 2022 to 931 people.

The agency's website explains that the "CMHC exists for a single reason: to make housing affordable for everyone in Canada." As part of its mandate, the CMHC offers mortgage insurance and financial assistance to create and improve affordable rental units. It also conducts research into housing, and in its recent 2023 Housing Market Outlook, the CMHC predicted declining affordability in cities like Vancouver and Toronto as housing demand continues to outstrip supply.

A recent report from RBC said "owning a home is still a huge (if not impossible) stretch for middle-income households in Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto, and Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax to a lesser degree." The average asking price for a rental unit in Canada was up 7.5 per cent to over $2,040 a month, according to a July report from Rentals.ca. While housing markets may have cooled somewhat, interest rate hikes have made mortgages more expensive and difficult to obtain.

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"If the CMHC’s number one goal is housing affordability, then it doesn’t make sense to shower employees with bonuses and balloon its C-suite compensation while Canadians can’t afford to buy a home," Terrazzano from the non-profit taxpayer advocacy group said.

In an email to CTVNews.ca, a CMHC spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the access to information documents, and highlighted the billions of dollars the CMHC has provided as dividends to the government of Canada.

"CMHC is committed to recognizing employee performance and contributions to the organization through cash compensation, which includes a blend of base pay, and incentive pay," agency spokesperson Claudie Chabot said. "The total compensation offered by CMHC as an employer – including base salaries and incentive pay – are an important tool for attracting and retaining the employees we need to carry out our work and deliver on important programs for Canadians."

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David Macdonald is the senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a progressive think-tank that focuses on social, economic and environmental justice. He says the CMCH’s bonuses are “fairly low” compared to what the private sector offers.

"These bonuses aren't going to be related to 'housing unaffordability,' they are going to be related to metrics for a particular person's job," Macdonald told CTVNews.ca by email on Monday.