Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to start off by saying thank you very much to the witnesses for coming here today and thank you for the excellent work you do.
The reality on the ground right now is that we are in a global economic recession. The IMF, the OECD, and other organizations have constantly praised Canada and its lending institutions for the excellent position that our country is in. That's due in large part to the regulations, obviously, but it's also due in large part to the fact that the banking institutions in our country take reasonable and responsible risks, not only in providing credit but also in providing a stable environment for our ability to conduct business in Canada.
I just wanted to let you know that we're not here on a witch hunt. We're not here to try to scapegoat anybody. From our perspective—at least from my perspective—we simply want to know. When we hear about incidents or anecdotal stories on the ground, it leads to some larger questions. I'll start off with that.
You say the lending policy has not changed, that it's 75%-25%, with 25% down and 75% lending. But I would expect--and I think it's a reasonable expectation for most Canadians--that while the 25% down payment might one of the qualifications, during a time when there is an economic downturn and so on the other bars may have crept up a little insofar as making a determination as to who is risk-worthy and who is not risk-worthy. Would that be a fair comment?