Thank you very much for the question.
I will give a reasonably brief answer. But Professor Johnson has raised quite a few points that I will want to reply to the committee in detail on in writing, because I simply won't have time today to refute the positions he has taken on a number of things.
I do want to speak first to his point about access. It is incorrect to say that access is in any way restricted. If you can turn to the full submission in your packages, I want to point you to a chart on page 14, which is a dramatic illustration of the contrary view on the issue of access.
I recall when my only choice, starting as an economist at the Bank of Canada in 1968, was my branch on Sparks Street. I had to be there between ten and three o'clock, Monday to Friday. That was the only time when I could access cash and the only way in which I could access cash.
If you look at the access chart on page 14 of the submission, you will see an absolutely explosive growth in what we call “access points” for Canadians in the ways in which they can get cash out of their own institutions, whether it's a bank or a credit union. What this access chart reflects is that there were two to four access points essentially for 10,000 people, 20, 25 years ago. By the year 2000, because of the explosive growth in the ABM system, and then the explosive growth in the non-bank ABM system, and then the explosive growth in point-of-sale facilities, you went to about 185 access points per 10,000.