Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Parmenter, I want to talk to you about an issue we haven't really touched on.
I recall that back in the 2008 crisis, major financial institutions in the United States were literally collapsing overnight. The term “too big to fail” was bandied about. This crisis seems to be, from an economic perspective, a far bigger problem than even 2008 may have been.
I don't want to make any assumptions about the banks' ability to weather these financial storms. I think it's important for everyone to remember that bank profitability is fundamentally important for the millions upon millions of Canadians who own bank stock or rely on bank stock dividends, not just personally but through pension plans like the Canada Pension Plan and large private pension plans.
I wonder if you can comment on whether there's any concern among the CEOs of the big banks as to the economic viability or stability of our banking system over the next number of months.