Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Congratulations, Ms. Menke. It's a new post. I hope you won't regret it in a couple of months.
I was listening to your brief, but I'm a bit surprised that you didn't mention anything about the crisis that's happening in the financial industry today. That's one of the reasons we asked you to come here. I don't think it's something you could ignore, so I'll ask you this question. How are consumers going to be protected with what's happening out there?
There seem to be losses. Day after day we're hearing about losses, and they keep getting revised, and they keep getting revised towards an upper amount rather than a lesser amount. The banks are under extreme pressure to keep reporting more and more profits, but if they're not there, somebody's going to have to provide them with those profits, and I think it's going to be the consumers, and probably Canadian consumers.
So how do we protect the Canadian consumer, what is your role going to be there, and what is your view in the future? I think that should have been addressed in the opening comments and not during my seven minutes, so if I interrupt you it's just because I want to lead you towards some quicker answers.