I have a short statement in light of developments that have happened since we last discussed this subject. Like most of you, I've been hearing from many of the over 1,700 retail investors who have been unable to liquidate their asset-backed commercial paper holdings since the market collapsed last August. I've been speaking to them, Mr. Purdy Crawford, and others about the restructuring plan that is currently under consideration.
I think it's desirable to encourage a private sector solution to this extraordinarily complex problem. But many of us also want to see that the special position of many of these smaller retail investors is recognized and appropriately dealt with in that process. Meetings with these investors are going on in Montreal and Toronto today, in Edmonton and Calgary tomorrow, and in Vancouver on Wednesday.
That brings me to what we are discussing today. I believe the results of these discussions over the next few days will have an important effect on who the members of this committee will want to hear from if we decide to proceed with hearings. Even if the special situation of the smaller retail investors can be resolved through this private sector process, I believe this committee will still want to get to the bottom of what went wrong from a regulatory perspective and what must be done to prevent a similar situation from recurring in the future. I believe there are some serious market oversight issues that need to be understood.
Mr. Crawford has confirmed to me that he will be happy to appear before this committee after the April 25 vote on the restructuring plan. We also need to hear from the federal and provincial regulatory authorities, the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the various provincial securities commissions, investment dealers associations, rating agencies, and the ombudsman for the banking system. What went wrong? We need to understand how governments and regulators are responding to this failure in the U.S. and other jurisdictions.
If the retail investors are not satisfied by the results of discussions over the next few days, that's a different story. In that case, I feel our committee should hear from these investors directly as well as from the regulatory agencies that allowed this to happen under their watch.
So for these reasons, rather than bring my motion forward for a vote today, I would like to reschedule the vote on this motion for Wednesday of this week.