Finance committee  I'll see what I can do. If we're speaking about lending to business--let's start there--businesses can get credit from banks, from non-bank lenders, and directly from financial markets. We've seen a sharp reduction in credit available to businesses directly from financial markets, of which the securitization channel is the most dramatic.

Finance committee  Certainly one reason that it's becoming more expensive is that what banks and other financial institutions have to pay in order to raise the funds that they lend has gone up. It's certainly gone up relative to the riskless credit, which is the government. Then this gets reflected in the price that banks and other lenders charge to their borrowers.

Finance committee  I understand.

Finance committee  I'm sorry?

Finance committee  Let's talk dollars? Okay.

Finance committee  One of the important principles underlying the extraordinary financing framework is that the risk to the taxpayer is to be controlled and minimized. As we were discussing, in the insured mortgage purchase program, there isn't an additional risk posed to the taxpayer other than the risk that is already there through the operation of mortgage insurance, either by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation or the private insurers.

Finance committee  Canada is the only country I'm aware of, and certainly the only industrialized country, that does not have a common securities regulator nationally. One of the issues that this raises, as we discussed, is the fragmentation in Canada and the inability, even with the best will and the best people if they're available, to come to quick decisions and to respond quickly to events as they develop, because of the need to coordinate across 13 jurisdictions.

Finance committee  Indeed.

Finance committee  Mr. Macklem talked about the discussions being held by the G20. Ideas are being circulated. Of course, a cap on leveraging is one of the ideas being considered. This is mainly because Canada has had a relatively better experience than most other industrialized countries.

Finance committee  As I recall, you were looking for the last $50 billion of the $200 billion. An extraordinary liquidity provision by the Bank of Canada accounts for $40 billion of this. The $40 billion is a round number; this peaked at $41 billion in the fall and currently stands in the $30 billion range.

Finance committee  The Bank of Canada maintains a number of facilities, and it recently announced the creation of a new facility, by which they provide liquidity; so they lend, essentially, on the basis of security posted by financial institutions and other investors. This is done very much on a demand basis.

Finance committee  Well, before this period of turbulence beginning in August 2007, the Bank of Canada was not providing any extraordinary liquidity. It did provide liquidity on the normal basis, which helps banks essentially settle their cheque clearing and other things, but it wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.

Finance committee  These facilities usually have various durations that are relatively short. Some of them say an institution can borrow from the Bank of Canada overnight, sometimes for 30 days, sometimes for 90 days. The $41 billion peak was the total outstanding, which would have had a variety of terms, and some of it has rolled off and then not been renewed at the initiative of the financial institution that had taken advantage of it.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Firstly, Mr. Macklem was making reference to regulating mortgage markets in the United States, and not securities regulation. He was right in saying that regulation in the mortgage market is highly fragmented in the United States, and that the problems being experienced there are a direct result of this fragmentation.