Canada

The head of Canada's housing agency says measures such as extending mortgage amortizations and changing the threshold to qualify for an insured mortgage are not the answer to the country's housing affordability challenges.

Even though homeowners have seen a rapid increase in what they are paying to cover mortgages as interest rates have risen, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. president and chief executive Romy Bowers is not in favour of allowing borrowers to repay their mortgages over longer periods of time.

"That just makes credit more available," she told The Canadian Press.