Ms. Stark, listening to you and reading through your presentation, I would have to say that you're unabashedly a fan of cooperatives, and from a very young age it would seem.
I, like Mr. Bélanger, am also interested in this piece about federal regulators having concerns about credit unions. I think we heard that one of their primary financial functions is placing mortgages with their members. It's a big a chunk of their business.
I live in Niagara. It's been one of the hardest hit manufacturing sectors in the entire country in terms of job losses. I haven't heard of any credit union going out of business—even some of the very smallest ones that are still basically one branch. Certainly some have moved on because they and their members have decided to, but none of them have gone out of business.
I'm curious about this piece in the way that Mr. Bélanger was. I wonder if we could—and perhaps with the analyst, as well—find out where that thought process from the regulators came from. Maybe they were just mixed up. Maybe they were looking at J.P. Morgan and some of the folks in the States. It seems to me that they weren't looking at credit unions in this country. Based on the statistics I've heard, credit unions have been growing. I know my own credit union, FirstOntario, just surpassed the billion-dollar mark in assets, I think two months ago. That was a one-branch place at one point in time.
From your perspective—because not all credit unions are members of your organization yet—do you see that type of growth? Are they looking to you as they get bigger and saying, “You know, we may need to syndicate some of these loans that we're doing.”
Are you seeing any uptick in the last couple of years as to the number of folks who want to join your organization?