Welcome. Welcome back, as I told the Minister of Finance earlier on. I would also like to welcome Mr. Macklem.
You stated very diplomatically in an aside to your brief that the easy part is behind us now. Some people might argue that the hardest part is yet to come.
I would like to begin by asking a question about currency. We are not engaged in a currency war, but there might be some elements to this on a global scale. You point out that many countries or central banks have huge U.S. dollar cash reserves. I would like to know whether this is a tool the bank uses, and what our variation in our U.S. dollar reserves is.
Regarding actions which might attack the Canadian dollar, do you think there is a danger this might happen and that the bank could lose any flexibility it has? I know that we do not officially control the value of our currency and that it is very flexible, but at a certain point, there might be movement in the value of our dollar.
Do you have, or could you have, internal tools which would enable you to play the currency, or, as some people might say, to at least play the market? These internal tools might be those of the bank, or they might come from the pension fund sector, or even from major capital reserves; they could even come from the Caisse de dépôt et de placement du Québec. Certainly, when you have a floating currency, the currency rates vary.
These are the questions I have with regard to the Canadian dollar.