Mr. Chair, and through you to the member, thank you for the question.
In anticipating that question, one example I would give, I would go back to my time in Saskatchewan in the Ministry of Finance. By way of context, Saskatchewan went through some very difficult times in the eighties and early nineties, but earlier in the eighties we were doing quite well. We went through difficult times and since have returned.
If you want to understand how any organization works, whether it's corporate or government, you go through it from the point of view of watching your credit rating go through the floor and then go from the top to the bottom and then back up. I can tell you, that was a very instructive lesson for me.
I'm proud of the relationships and responsibilities that were built up in dealing with financial institutions both in Canada and internationally that allowed us to continue to finance the activities not only of the provincial government, the deficit we were running, but also the investments in the crown corporations. During very difficult times we were able to continue to work with international financial institutions and the credit rating agencies to keep the province going.