Thank you very much.
Thanks to all of you for taking time to come here today and participate in our deliberations.
I'll start things off, but as we go through, each one of our members will be addressing different aspects of this. And once I've asked my questions, somebody might need to correct some of the things I say. We'll be coming at all of you in different ways.
It is a vexing issue, of course, how to strike the right balance in terms of perhaps encouraging: how much value is there in that, what can the government afford, how can it prevent abuse, how to best use tax dollars and tax measures, and so on. They're interesting questions. Certainly your presentations have been helpful.
I want to focus on a couple of points. One question is to Mr. Aptowitzer. I think there's some merit to the suggestion of provincial-federal coordination or a commission. I understand the provincial jurisdiction for regulation, but I'm sure you can appreciate the fact that the Supreme Court has recently said the federal government cannot set up its own national registry for securities.
I think there's merit to what you say because it is a matter of trust in many ways, and the provinces do have the role to play in their operations in monitoring charities.
Realistically, what do you think the possibilities are that we're going to get very far down that road of combining the provincial and federal responsibilities with respect to charities?