Thank you, Mr. McKay.
I'm going to take the next Conservative spot. I want to follow up on what Mr. McKay and Mr. Wallace have been talking about in terms of the credit issue.
We had the Bank of Canada in and asked the classic question that we all get asked back in our ridings about the overnight rate going from 4.5% in 2007 to 0.50% in March of 2009, and the prime rate going down, and the variable mortgage rate going down—I think Canadians see that. But in the case of individual Canadians like Mr. Wallace with his line of credit, and especially for my area, with small and medium-sized businesses.... There's an industrial park in my constituency, in Nisku, from which people are coming to me saying they've been creditworthy customers for years. They understand the increase in the cost of credit, based on what's happening in the world financial markets, but they have, they say, a group of assets in place, have never missed a payment in 10 years, and their cost of credit has gone up.
We have also heard from other witnesses saying that credit is available, at least from their institutions, but the cost of credit has gone up. They say their institutions are saying to them: you're in a sector, a market, or an area, so your costs will go up by two points. That's just the reality of the situation.
Even in their response to us, the banks said there are a couple of factors. There is obviously the cost of credit, which has gone up. But they are supposed to value individual cases and individual customers, and this is a real challenge for us to deal with.
I'd like to put the question to the Canadian Bankers Association. Is there a better way to deal with these small and medium-sized business owners?