Thank you, Minister.
There are quite a number of things jammed into this bill, one of which is amendments to the Bank of Canada Act. As you know, the Bank of Canada has put about $10 billion of additional funding to liquefy, if you will, the system over the last number of months.
In the bill here it says “conducting monetary policy or”--that's a well-understood purpose of the Bank of Canada--“promoting the stability of the Canadian financial system”.
My first question is whether that is new to the role of the Bank of Canada.
My second question is with respect to “it can buy and sell...securities”. That would be well understood. And then it says “any other financial instruments”. That's a pretty broad idea of any other financial instruments. Can you give us some idea of what the Bank of Canada has in mind?
And my third question has to do with “a severe and unusual stress on a financial system”, which apparently the governor alone determines. It seems to me, on the face of it, that this is an enormous allocation of powers to the Governor of the Bank of Canada, with virtually no parliamentary oversight whatsoever. I understand that the Bank of Canada is responsible for monetary policy, but this seems, on the face of it, to have the potential of enormously expanding the governor's authorities.
Could you comment on that, please?