We continue to look at the housing market very closely because of the potential financial stability implications. What we've seen over the last year is what you would expect, given the transformation of the economy going from more energy based to non-commodity based. You noted, quite rightly, that in places that are dependent more on energy, not only Alberta but other provinces, you see their housing market conditions slowing quite considerably. It's what you would expect as people become unemployed, perhaps move to other provinces to find new employment, or just go home to where they originally worked before they moved to Alberta. There is a lot of that going on and you see the slowing there.
If you look at elsewhere in the country, there are two other things going on. You have major cities like Vancouver and the greater Toronto area, where the markets are actually going very strongly, and we're watching that closely. The context there is that how strong that is is just a function of the supply and demand dynamics that have been going on for years. Adding to that is the interprovincial migration of people and the fact that their employment is up and their economies are doing relatively better than the energy-dependent places.
When you look at that and try to make an assessment of the market you really need to take into account those supply and demand dynamics. The supply constraints are well known in Vancouver and Toronto. It is because of geography, because of the permits, and because of the interest people have in working and living there.
Clearly, from a monetary policy point of view it is something we look at and we take into account. At the same time, given the localized nature of the things that we're really focusing on right now, monetary policy as a tool really is just too blunt for that. Maybe there are other tools.
As you know well, the government has taken some actions recently that just came into force, so we'll be watching it closely.