Thank you.
First, I'll say for the committee's benefit that there are frequent communications between the governors of the G-7, G-10, and G-20 central banks now, but very frequent direct meetings, monthly meetings, face-to-face, more frequent telephone conversations. Unfortunately, there were very frequent conversations around this time last year, because there was a lot to talk about, and through into the year.
I would assure you that because of that, a level of trust and openness has been built up with the core central banks over the years. It persisted in the crisis, and we benefited from that. We knew about every bad thing that was going to happen before it was public, directly from a governor of the affected central bank. That was enormously helpful for some contingency planning on our part, but also to have a sense of the dimension of the problems.
The second thing with the global central banks--and I won't go into all the details--is the coordinated liquidity provision: a series of facilities put in place, emergency facilities unfortunately, that had to be put in place to keep the system functioning. About this time last year, we participated in and helped initiate a coordinated interest rate cut of the major central banks because we could see the very rapid deterioration in the economy. It was helpful; it comes with a lag, but it was helpful on margin.
I think where you start to see Canada's broader role--and I very much broaden this to the role of the Minister of Finance and the Department of Finance and the regulators--was when you shifted into fiscal policy and then saving the system. In the meeting in October of the G-7, when it was unfortunately necessary for some fairly bold, unprecedented moves to be taken, Canada had credibility at that table to make that case: that now was the time for everybody to step in and support their institution so the system as a whole would continue to function. That was not an enjoyable decision for anybody to take, but it did help to have somebody at least at the table for whom it wasn't immediately necessary, and I think on margin that helped build that consensus. Major decisions were taken there.
The forward-looking issue since then has been how to rebuild the system. The crisis lingered for a long time after that, but it was arrested then. The tail was going to be taken out then, I think, once the decisions of October last year were taken. But how do you rebuild the system? That's the G-20 regulatory agenda that has been built up over time. I think Canada has played an important role, in part because there are some lessons to take from why our system did not have the problem, and we've taken lessons from that. What's been important as well is to be constructive around the table is to be honest and recognize that there are lessons for us to learn from what's happened elsewhere and there are things we can improve about our system and participate in those discussions that way.