Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks also go to the minister for being here with us today to answer our questions.
The big banks were particularly harsh in terms of the results for the first quarter of the year. The National Bank talked about “calamitous results”, TD Bank used the word “atrocious”, just like the Governor of the Bank of Canada.
In the budget, the expected growth was 1.2% for the first quarter of 2015 while the Bank of Canada forecasted 0%. The surplus of $1.4 billion that you claim to be able to free up is clearly based on the 1.2%.
In practical terms, what changed because of this quarter's results?