There are two things I will say in response to that.
The emphasis of your point is absolutely right in the sense that none of us—and that's certainly not the case with Canadian banks—can be complacent about the levels of Canadian debt. We agree. We monitor this very carefully. We agree with the warnings from Minister Flaherty and from Governor Mark Carney. This is not something that should be taken lightly.
At the same time, it is important to put it into perspective. All the points, all the differences with the housing market, which I was just referring to in response to Mr. Van Kesteren, are very true.
When we look at the housing market in Canada.... I am not an economist. I cannot give you an economic forecast. But the preponderance of opinion I see, on Bay Street and elsewhere, is that there is some froth in the market but that it is slowly coming down. We are not talking about a bubble. We are not talking about a dramatic collapse. There is some softness that will happen. We are seeing consumer borrowing levels having risen.
And remember, today is the day the Bank of Canada released its policy decision on interest rates. It's kept them very low, historically low, almost to the point of free money. The point of doing that was to encourage people to borrow, to continue the economy going forward. The balancing act is that you have to encourage those expenditures but you have to be careful that it does not get inflated.
I would say we are seeing a slowing down of that consumer lending. There will be a softening of prices. I'm quoting here, Mr. Brison, the preponderance of opinion that I read.