I would add that the offer is a good start, because it is proposing to give par, plus accrued interest, and pay legal costs for 1,400 families. However, there are 1,800 families. So we need to get back to the negotiating table and complete the offer. The other 400 families need to get par, plus accrued interest, and have their legal costs taken care of.
In addition, there is a significant discrimination going on both by Canaccord and the National Bank Financial of Canada. In the National Bank Financial case, they have offered to settle cash only up to $2 million. On anything above $2 million, you get nothing. We have several Quebec families, well-known, contributing, hard-working families, who have accumulated above the $2 million level, who do not deserve to be discriminated against. They are still small investors. They are not pension funds, they are not governments, they are not corporations. These people should be paid.
At Canaccord, people are not being paid if they're over $1 million. Who made up that arbitrary rule? Hasn't anybody ever figured out, with low interest rates, how much money you need to produce your own pension? It's an absurdity to have that arbitrary distinction in the cash settlements.
Retail customers are retail customers, no matter what faith, no matter what colour, no matter how much money those retail customers were able to assemble. They were sold a tainted bill of goods. They want their money back, and I think basically the Canaccord offer is deficient in that regard. The National Bank offer has been deficient from the beginning.
Everyone needs to get back to the table so that we can get the retail customer group settled once and for all, everybody, and then the institutions can proceed with the restructuring that they have negotiated over the last seven months.