Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of our guests today for coming this morning. I appreciate the comments from Mr. Siegel that you could move as soon as the budget gets passed, and we're hoping that happens expeditiously through the Senate.
The questions I have are for Ms. Dickson.
I was fortunate to be on the finance committee last year when you were in front of us talking about non-bank asset-backed paper. You had four or five actions that OSFI was going to be taking, and you concluded that the freezing of the non-bank ABCP market had rightfully led to a lot of questions. This was prior to what has happened with the ability to secure ties or sell the commercial paper that was available for car loans and leasing companies and so on, including the financial arms of the car manufacturers. But we're now hearing that has dried up and it's very difficult to get credit or be able to provide the cash to be able to provide those leases.
I may be concerned unnecessarily with the $12 billion in secured credit facility that we're offering in the budget, but here's where my dilemma is. We've had a problem with asset-backed paper, and we actually had a Montreal accord to try to solve that problem for investors. Then we had an economic downturn, and now we're talking about the need for asset-backed paper to be able to provide for—since you're here we'll use this example—the automotive community to move product off their lots.
What is OSFI's position on asset-backed paper? How does it relate to what has changed between what occurred last year when we had difficulties and the position we're in now? Do you have any comment for me to help me understand why everybody is coming to us?
I'm on the automotive subcommittee--I've been sitting in on those meetings--and every one of the manufacturers has been talking to us about providing this credit. They're very happy that this credit facility is in the budget and that this asset-backed approach to creating the cashflow to allow for leasing and selling is there.
From your perspective, can you tell me what I'm missing, and whether we did the right thing? Did we improve things so that this will work? That's my question.