The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation handed out $31.7 million in bonuses last year amid a years-long housing affordability crisis, according to government records reviewed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“If your organization’s goal is making homes affordable, your C-suite shouldn’t be taking millions in taxpayer-funded bonuses while Canadians can’t afford homes,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “The housing minister promised to review CMHC bonuses years ago and the CMHC has handed out bigger taxpayer-funded bonuses every year since.”

The CMHC is the federal housing agency that has repeatedly claimed its goal is “housing affordability for all.”

Despite its CEO admitting housing supply and affordability “remained one of Canada’s greatest challenges,” the CMHC handed out $31.7 million in taxpayer-funded bonuses last year, according to government records released in response to an order paper question.

CMHC executives took $3.5 million in bonuses in 2025-26. That works out to an average bonus of $44,800 for each executive.

The CMHC refused to disclose what percentage of its executives took a bonus in 2025-26, claiming that “information constitutes personal information.” However, the CMHC previously disclosed that about 99 per cent of its executives took a bonus in 2024-25.

Non-executive staff collected $28.2 million in bonuses last year.

CMHC executives have a pattern of rewarding their own failure with taxpayers’ money.

Members of Parliament grilled former housing minister Sean Fraser over CMHC bonuses after the CTF caught the Crown corporation rubberstamping bonuses during the housing crisis.

Fraser said he was “happy to review the process by which bonuses are provided” in 2023. The CMHC has handed out about $90 million in taxpayer-funded bonuses since the beginning of 2023. In fact, the CMHC increased its taxpayer-funded bonuses every year since Fraser made that promise.

“If bureaucrats taking bonuses made homes more affordable, every Canadian would own a home with an in-ground pool plus a cottage at the lake,” Terrazzano said. “Canadians need more homes, not more highly paid pencil pushers rubberstamping bonuses for each other.”

The CMHC has continued handing out bonuses despite Canadians struggling to afford homes.

The CMHC recently made their “housing affordability for all” goal even more specific. The agency’s website claims that “by 2030, everyone in Canada has a home they can afford and that meets their needs.”

Yet, the data shows the CMHC is failing to achieve its goals.

Instead of “housing affordability for all,” Abacus Data described housing affordability as “a crisis everyone feels.” Its 2025 poll shows that nearly nine in 10 Canadians are worried about the state of housing and that most Canadians, at least occasionally, worry about being able to keep up with their rent or mortgage payments.

“Buyers in every corner of the country still find it less affordable to own a home today than before the pandemic,” according to a 2025 report from the Royal Bank of Canada.

Even the CMHC’s own data shows it’s failing on housing affordability.

The average Canadian spends more than half of their income on housing – up from 39 per cent in 2019, according to CMHC data.

“Prime Minister Mark Carney needs to end Ottawa’s government entitlement culture because every year government executives take taxpayer-funded bonuses even when their organization fails,” Terrazzano said. “Bonuses are for when you go above and beyond, they shouldn’t be handed out like participation ribbons.”

Undeserved bonuses are a longstanding symptom of Ottawa’s government entitlement culture.

About 98 per cent of all government executives took a bonus in 2024-25, the last year where data is available. Meanwhile, federal departments met just 54 per cent of their performance targets that year.