Finance committee  Thank you very much. We are pleased to be here to speak with you today. I have a couple of opening remarks on behalf of the department and my colleagues Julie, Rachel and Matt. We're here to help you with your study on the impacts of inflation and increased interest rates on mortgages in Canada, particularly with respect to variable rate mortgages.

Finance committee  Neither Matt nor I has personally worked on that type of analysis. I might point you to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the Bank of Canada from two perspectives. One, they have done some pilot work on climate risk scenario analysis, something that's there to help build out how institutions model and assess risk—

Finance committee  On the second part, another reason I point you in the direction of OSFI is that understanding client risk and counterparty risk will be very important for financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and so on. I imagine it would be part of the risk analysis that OSFI will be expecting for financial institutions.

Finance committee  One element—and I think I've mentioned this already—is that having a global baseline that countries can look to and adapt or tailor with their specific jurisdictional considerations is very helpful, particularly for multinational companies that might have regulatory requirements across more than just Canada, the United States, Europe or Asia.

Finance committee  Generally speaking, the requirements require scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 reporting. There's a value chain dimension to scope 3 reporting such that if you're one who inputs into the production of various economic activities or products, that's important to take into account. As it's being set out, there will be a need for smaller and medium-sized industry to report that type of information.

Finance committee  In green transition—

Finance committee  I don't have the specifics on hand with me today, although they are a member of the G20 and will be reporting on their progress publicly against a road map that a G20 group has set out on disclosure and other elements of market infrastructure.

Finance committee  I think I'll answer it in a slightly different way. I believe that in the guideline OSFI released earlier this week, a transition plan is a requirement of a financial institution. I can't speak to whether that's similar to or dissimilar from what the expectation would be in Europe, but that is already occurring.

Finance committee  I would say that's a bit out of the ambit of our expertise from a financial sector policy perspective. That might be a question better placed with another ministry.

Finance committee  That's a good question. I don't have an empirical number on the cost of the burden, whether it is for provincial securities commissions or OSFI, and how much will go into that. In the context of OSFI, they would look at it as risks to the institution that the institution should be mindful of and proactively monitoring and mitigating.

Finance committee  The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is an independent agency that regulates federally regulated financial institutions. As OSFI does develop and elaborate on guidelines, it has a committee with the Bank of Canada, the Department of Finance, the deposit insurer and the consumer affairs commissioner where feedback can be provided.

Finance committee  That's a good question. Again, that would likely be best positioned with a representative from OSFI. They have opined on that publicly in terms of how they see climate risk impacting financial institutions. They see it as a stability issue to be assessed, monitored and mitigated with financial institutions.

Finance committee  It's important to have a variety of stakeholder perspectives when government policy is being considered. The SFAC, as I mentioned, brings in 25 private sector financial institutions. That's one perspective on advice that comes to the government, and they have consulted on all of their activities.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for your question, Mr. Garon. I'm sorry, but I will answer in English. It's a good question. I would say there are a number of different aspects to a government taking a decision on a policy. The sustainable finance action council comprises 25 private sector financial institutions and has a mandated work plan.

Finance committee  I can't speculate at this time on future areas of policy work or decisions by the government.