Yes, a few small items. I'll do two and three and then pass to Mr. Macklem for the first one, although we may need to come back.
Just as it is for governments in Europe, the United States government, and the Canadian federal government, it's important that all our provinces are on sustainable fiscal paths. We note the efforts of our two largest provinces to accomplish that. The lesson we've all learned over the years has been that it's important to have a path, it's important to have a plan, it's important to over-perform relative to that plan over time, and credibility is built with performance, as opposed to announcements.
There have been tough decisions that have been taken in those jurisdictions, and it's not really appropriate, obviously, for us to comment in detail, aside from the overall. It is important for the continued health of the Canadian economy that these provinces continue to make progress consistent with the fiscal paths they have outlined over the course of the last several years, and we welcome the progress they have made.
With respect to number three, on financial reforms, let me break it into three parts. First, we entirely disagree with the comments of the president of the Canadian Bankers Association. I gave an answer to this shortly after it came out. It was a good thing we didn't press pause when the financial crisis was on, didn't press pause in providing liquidity to the Canadian banks. It's a good thing the government didn't press pause when they were providing extraordinary liquidity, when we were engineering a restructuring of the non-bank asset-backed commercial paper that ended up preserving tens of billions of dollars of value for individuals, for our major pension funds, for governments across this country.
The crisis revealed deep deficiencies in the structure of the global financial system. Some of those deficiencies were shared here in Canada, fewer here than elsewhere. But we're resolute and I think the government is resolute and the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is resolute as well to ensure that we methodically and quickly address those.