Yes. There were a few administrative issues that needed to be corrected. Again, it comes out of pre-budget consultations, some done by this committee, some done by the Department of Finance, by me and by Minister Menzies and by Shelley Glover, the parliamentary secretary, and so on.
We had a three-year review, which was mandated in the original RDSP legislation, to look at how it could be improved. That's generally a good idea. I think most members would agree that with new statutes we go back and have a look at how effective they are every few years. We did that with the RDSP. A number of recommendations came forward. They are in this bill, Bill C-45. It'll help, for example, replace the 10-year repayment rule applying to withdrawals with a proportional repayment.
That sounds like it's complicated, but it just lets more people put money back into an RDSP over a 10-year period so they don't lose some of the benefits they had. We want persons with significant disabilities or severe disabilities to be able to use money in an RDSP if they have a special need at one point, a financial need, to use it but then to replenish the fund during that period of time. That's why these amendments are here.
The RDSP initiative has done well. It has tens of thousands of plans. A number of our banks showed leadership in setting up the computer programs. They did so at a loss originally, but they did it, and other financial institutions have caught up. This is very good and I encourage people who can benefit from the plan to talk to their financial institution, their local bank branch.