Finance Committee on May 29th, 2006

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

And will they carry the savings along to the consumers?

[Andy Charles]

Yes, by virtue of creating a market advantage. Currently I'm not a lender, but to create a market advantage in the market--

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Consumers are not sophisticated. Are they going to shop around for the insurance?

[Andy Charles]

From the perspective of how it works, some lenders control the decisions centrally, sir; for other lenders, it's decentralized. It could be a branch manager, it could be a mortgage specialist, or it could be a mortgage broker. Whoever puts out the product that makes sense for that particular clientele is where the value proposition would be.

If I may, an earlier question came up about the value of additional competition. If we go back in history, at one time CMHC would have had 100% of the market; by virtue of competition, Genworth is now at 30%.

Speaking for AIG United Guaranty, it's our belief that new players will need to work hard and will need to be innovative, but at the end of the day we expect to be successful.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Charles.

Mr. Roy, are you here as a lender or an insurer? Do you support this as a lender or as an insurer?

[Noël Roy]

We support this as a lender.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Do you have a branch or a division that ensures mortgages?

[Noël Roy]

No. Desjardins does not ensure mortgages. We provide general fire insurance.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Not mortgage insurance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Thank you very much to our witnesses.

We'll take a minute for the second panel members to come forward now. We invite you to come forward to continue your testimony.

[Garth Turner, Conservative, Halton, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair. There are more questions on this side of the table. Are we going to get an opportunity to ask them?

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Mr. Turner, you will. All the people who have registered here today are also planning to testify before the committee later this week in regard to the budget's implementation bill, so you'll get another chance at that point as well.

[Garth Turner, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Is that confirmed with all the witnesses?

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Yes, I believe so. Five of the witnesses who just testified are also going to be available to answer questions on this or other topics on Wednesday. That is five from the two panels today, so five of--

[Garth Turner, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Which ones are and which ones aren't?

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

We'll hand out the list of those who have registered.

[Garth Turner, Conservative, Halton, ON]

But if they're not coming back, I'd like to extend this session to those witnesses who are not going to appear again, if there are more questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

That's not going to happen.

[Garth Turner, Conservative, Halton, ON]

What do you mean, it's not going to happen?

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

We invited these witnesses to come forward at this point, and now—

[Garth Turner, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Surely the committee is the master of its own destiny, though.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Yes. The committee gave clearance as to how this panel would be conducted, and it's being conducted that way. So unless we would like to add some other—

[Garth Turner, Conservative, Halton, ON]

If we have more questions of these witnesses.... I don't know which witnesses are coming back and which are not.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

In response to your earlier comments, sir, we're handing out a list of those who have registered. We'll just hand out the list of who is coming back. Five of the ten who are testifying today are also here on Wednesday.

[Garth Turner, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Right, but can I wait until I see this list?