Finance committee  It's the complexities of Canadian federalism, frankly, in the sense that they are regulated provincially. The Province of Ontario has just passed major legislation to tighten all of that up. We'll see what the differences are. But yes, I go to meetings of the joint forum, which is the provincial regulators.

Finance committee  Yes, and--

Finance committee  There it is. We're going to lead the charge on taking on some of those issues.

Finance committee  First of all, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for the opportunity. I'm happy to join the committee in their deliberations whenever I can report in or be of assistance. Let me make several points. You will note that the Senate banking committee has just set out a report. I refer to it in terms of its comments on our awareness and the wide range of materials that are available to you, to your constituency offices and to your constituents, to Canadian consumers.

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely.

Finance committee  There are a couple of things. Very germane to your question is a project that we're driving--we'll get the information and share it with you--where we are targeting lower-income Canadians and people in these distress areas. We have a major report, which I'll get to all members of the committee, on financial capability.

Finance committee  The mandate does not prevent there from being a fee. The mandate from Parliament is to get the full disclosure. What is influencing it--ever the optimist, here I go--is that in the last round we said we would open the doors to new entrants. We'd make it easier, for example, like credit unions--

Finance committee  Oh, sorry. I'll come back to that.

Finance committee  Two things. Number one is that we are driving an agenda to get consumers to shop around. We can come back to this--and I'd be happy to come back to committee again--because if people shop around, there are now entrants and players who are cutting their fees. They're out there. It may well be that parliamentarians may want to hear why they can do it and still make money.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Inquiries.

Finance committee  Very quickly, if it's a redress issue we send it to the ombudsman. If it has no regulatory impact, I have no power over it--

Finance committee  I think a lot of times they come through the Government of Canada--through the “maple leaf”, as I call it, in the system. They're looking for somebody to assist them. Sometimes we have to get them to where they need to be. Just to add to that, quite often it's the Quebec authority or a provincial regulator.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, we could have another committee meeting on how the 60% came about. It was, I think, written on a napkin in a committee like this--again showing my age--all cooked up among members, a very long time ago, for a quick fix to get the amendment through. It might have been the justice committee.

Finance committee  Yes.