Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for appearing.
I want to make a quick statement, first of all, to the Public Service Alliance.
Thank you for coming. Thank you for your presentation. However, I take one issue with you, if you'll afford me that. Previous to your appearing here, the Canadian Union of Public Employees came. I appreciated their submission, because they talked about how we can sustain an economic recovery in Canada to create quality jobs—I took some issue with them on that—to ensure relatively low taxation, and to achieve a balanced budget.
I would suggest, sir, that you're absolutely right concerning your cases of hardship, and all of us are sensitive to those. But I would suggest that Ms. Pohlmann would also tell you of many cases within the private sector too, and I would encourage you, if you could still do this for this committee, to submit something in which, rather than just look at the hardships—and we all recognize them—you might suggest ways that we as a committee might be able to tackle those issues that the public service union talks about.
I'm on a roll here, Mr. Olson. I have to disagree with your analysis of the cost of houses too. In Chatham, where I'm from, you can build a brand-new house for $450,000, and in Toronto that same house will cost you over $1 million. I would suggest this difference is due to more than just regulatory factors; I think there are other factors that play in, in all fairness.
I'm not going to ask you to respond to that. I'll bet you would like to, but I want to get to Mr. Campbell first.
We're seeing a phenomenon. The Windsor Star had a little quote from Buffalo Springfield that “There's something happening here”--you may have read that.
Could you tell us why our Canadian banks have fared differently and why that is so important to sustain economic recovery? Could you expand on that? I think it's our job to not always jump on the bandwagon but maybe as leaders to say, “Folks, there's another story here; you need to hear something else.” Maybe you could explain to us why we are in the position we are in today.