Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question, because I think it deals with an important clarification that I would want to bring to this committee. ABCP, as it was called, is asset-backed commercial paper. As I understand it, essentially commercial paper is like a corporate IOU, where

Finance committee  A few have exited the business. They're essentially Canadian subsidiaries of American firms who were pulled out of the Canadian marketplace—not because the Canadian marketplace wasn't profitable, but frankly, because Canada in many instances is just a rounding error on their bala

Finance committee  There's no question that most of the discussion in the media about this program and, I think, generally has been around the auto sector, but the budget was quite clear in talking about vehicles and equipment. I think that's important to remember. Yes, part of that discussion ha

Finance committee  I think you've hit the nail on the head. The crux of the issue is that our members, these non-bank financing companies, relied very heavily on non-bank funding, on insurance companies and pension funds in particular, which would essentially buy the cashflow from a package of le

Finance committee  It's just gone. Sun Life is still buying, but it has halved its budget. But Canada Life and Manulife Financial are out of the business for the time being, and that's because they've been told they need to allocate their funds for other purposes. It has nothing to do with the qual

Finance committee  The last time I looked at the figures, the banks were up at about $1.3 trillion, or something like that. We're at $112 billion, so that gives you a rough idea. It's a little under 10%, I would think. It's very targeted to consumers and to small business.

Finance committee  Typically we don't, although they clearly are looking at the credit as a bank in many instances would look at the credit. The reality is, though, that most of our members are in the business of helping their partners, who are manufacturers, to sell their product. There's a pred

Finance committee  Don't get me wrong. I'm not here to defend the marketing practices of our members. Those are their particular choices.

Finance committee  In certain segments in the leasing industry, particularly the vehicle leasing industry, car manufacturers have chosen in effect to subsidize the rates. That was a business decision they made in order to attract market share. Canadian consumers benefited enormously from it, and co

Finance committee  The way it was explained to me, in part, was that if you have an automobile that could retail for $23,000 and you choose to sell it for $25,000 and give away free financing, you're essentially taking your profit as the manufacturer as opposed to the credit company. The credit com

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Mulcair. Yes, indeed, you're right that it may be some time before I consider joining the international socialist movement. That aside, I will say, and it may sound contradictory to my earlier remarks, that I do agree that time is of the essence. I didn't say th

Finance committee  No, it's “Keep it simple, customer”, or KISC. We've seen programs that were put forward for the banks in the fall that were just not taken up by the banks because they didn't work. That was because either the pricing was too high or some other criterion just didn't work and did

Finance committee  First of all, I would underline the fact that it's not only auto loans; it's also equipment loans and leases.

Finance committee  Certainly time is of the essence. I've been working closely with Finance and now with the BDC on this. Yes, of course we would like to have seen things move as quickly as possible. That said, this is a rather complex area for government. It's a new area that government really has

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for this opportunity to meet with the committee. We've titled our submission to the committee “Getting Credit to Main Street Canada for SMEs and Consumers”. The Canadian Finance and Leasing Association strongly supports the government's go