Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses. I also feel bad that some of our other witnesses haven't had a chance to answer questions.
Mr. Phillips, I will direct my question to you about a comment you made, and I hope you can put it in context. We've heard from the bankers and the banking associations about access to credit, and that's what this study is supposedly prefaced on; it is making sure that people have access to credit. Your comment was that you will not pull back. We heard from the banks that they're increasing their lending portfolio, and frankly that's not what we're hearing from our constituents. That's who we're here to represent, our constituents. Whether it's an issue of them being creditworthy customers or not, that's not our judgment call, but we're getting calls from our constituents about how they get access to credit. The lobster fishermen, for example, are having trouble accessing money for their very short season, which is over on Mother's Day. I'm concerned with farmers in western Canada getting enough liquidity to put a crop in this spring.
First, is your system any different from the big banking system in Canada? We appreciate that you represent a lot of our rural constituents. So maybe give us a comment on that.