I think there are probably two questions there.
One is, in terms of looking at history, how does this recession compare, where are we in the recession, and are we coming out of it? To paraphrase what I said earlier—and then I'll turn to Mr. Halde, because I'm sure he'll have commentary too—in many ways with this recession, the old line “This time it'll be different”...well, it's not going to be different this time. There are business cycles.
The one thing I would emphasize is that while we are seeing problems among manufacturers—but not across the board, because there are different strengths—there was greater strength in our industry going into this recession than maybe in previous recessions, and greater diversity certainly. But there was greater discipline on the part of fiscal health, financial health, balance sheet health on the part of SMEs going into this. So at this stage of the recession we're not seeing huge numbers of bankruptcies. Compared to previous recessions, the number of bankruptcies is remarkably mild. And that's a surprise. The number of SMEs that are being created is actually going up. Now people can say that's because unemployed people have become self-employed, but nevertheless we're seeing those numbers go up.
For where we go from here, I think much depends upon two things. Much depends upon the continued resilience of Canadian households. Canadian household balance sheets are way better than U.S. household balance sheets. We're able to continue to spend. Our unemployment, though still higher than any of us would like it to be, is much better than the United States. So I think the domestic demand side is going to stand small businesses, who focus on the domestic economy, in good shape. The problem is what's going to happen in the U.S.
You talked—and I thank you very much for your remarks—about the prudent lending here in Canada. The United States is still paying the price for very imprudent lending, and we're going to see resets of variable mortgages there next year, which is going to continue the crisis. So that's where I see continued problems.
Jean-René?