CMHC Paid $31.7 Million in Bonuses While Vancouver Affordability Crashed: What This Means for Mortgage Reliability

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation distributed $31.7 million in taxpayer-funded bonuses during the 2025-26 fiscal year, according to government records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Executive leadership alone collected $3.5 million, averaging $44,800 per executive, while non-executive staff received $28.2 million. The disclosure, released in response to an order paper question, reveals that CMHC refused to specify what percentage of executives received bonuses in 2025-26, citing personal information privacy, though previous years showed roughly 99 percent of executives took bonuses. This payout occurred despite the Crown corporation's public mandate of achieving "housing affordability for all" by 2030, and comes as the average Canadian now directs more than half of their income toward housing costs—up from 39 percent in 2019.

The CMHC functions as Canada's national housing agency and primary mortgage insurer, playing a critical role in Greater Vancouver's high-ratio mortgage market where home prices routinely trigger the requirement for CMHC insurance on down payments below 20 percent. In Greater Vancouver, where the benchmark home price far exceeds national averages, CMHC insurance is not optional for most entry-level buyers—it is the gateway to homeownership. The agency's CEO has publicly acknowledged that housing supply and affordability remain "one of Canada's greatest challenges," yet internal compensation practices have drawn fire from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Members of Parliament. In 2024-25, about 98 percent of all federal government executives took bonuses, even though departments met just 54 percent of performance targets that year.