Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for being with us this afternoon.
I appreciate your kind words about the work of this committee, so my first question relates to that in the context of the main plank of your pension reform, which was to raise the maximum allowable surplus from 10% to 25%. The problem in doing this now is that the horse is out of the door, in the sense that with deficits of 20% to 33% for most of our pension plans, the fact that you can have a surplus greater than 10% is at best a moot point.
But I would remind you, Minister, that this committee, in the pre-budget hearings of 2007, made precisely this same recommendation to you, that in Budget 2007 you raise this maximum surplus from 10% to 25%. Had you done it then, prior to the crisis, it might have had an impact, because the crisis had not yet happened and pension plans were in much better shape.
Would you acknowledge that it was unfortunate you did not follow this committee's advice and raise that pension surplus in 2007, before the horse had left the barn?