Finance committee  Okay. Got it. And Tiff Macklem, yes. We don't anticipate any immediate impact of the arrival of Mr. Macklem. But yes, of course, we've taken that into account. One of the things we've tried to highlight in the report is that we believe there has been a pulling forward of some economic activity, particularly in the housing sector and in some other consumption, for several reasons: one was the expiration of the home renovation tax credit and associated expenditure around that; second, anticipation of changes in interest rates; and third, the HST, on new home purchases but on other purchases as well.

Finance committee  It was too low.

Finance committee  Yes, they would have to, certainly. We made a number of points and there was pretty strong agreement. But the core agenda, as we've been talking about a bit, is capital, liquidity, and interconnectedness, and we have to make progress on that core agenda. You should hold us to account to make progress on that core agenda by November.

Finance committee  Okay. Well, first off, thanks for those kind words. At the depths of the crisis, there were some very difficult decisions that had to be taken, certainly internationally and in Canada. The history will ultimately be written, but because of our relatively better position I think we were able to assist in helping others make the right decisions, if you will, internationally, and I think importantly in October 2008 to get agreement at the G7 level--which really turned it around--that we would take some difficult decisions in terms of providing more explicit support for institutions, by way of liquidity and backstopping, to put a floor under the crisis.

Finance committee  I think you're absolutely right on both points—and you agreed with me earlier, so now we're even—but one of the reactions in particular to worry about is maybe not just the level of activity. These calculations assume that there's the same level of activity and that you just strip out a cost.

Finance committee  Well, that is true, in that higher capital, better capital, better liquidity management, and higher liquidity actually carried on the books are all factors that will reduce the probability of failure of individual institutions and collectively will improve the resilience of the system.

Finance committee  Well, one hesitates to be too precise about short-term movements in currencies, so I will not be. The level of our dollar is a product of numerous factors: our relative economic performance, relative fiscal position, the terms of trade. This is much broader, as you're suggesting, Chair, than just the price of oil.

Finance committee  Well, on the outlook in the United States, the United States remains a reserve currency, at a minimum, and the outlook in the United States in relative terms, globally amongst industrialized countries, is improving. Certainly, we've highlighted in the report the importance of the hand-off, if you will, to the private sector later this year and into 2011 in the United States.

Finance committee  Thank you. Markets sometimes overshoot. We should be conscious of that. For those reasons, the bank, in agreement with the Minister of Finance, has additional tools to address those situations, and no one should be under any illusions that we wouldn't use them if it were appropriate.

Finance committee  I would just like to clarify one thing. Since the beginning of the financial crisis, short-term markets have been facing problems. I am talking about the liquidity problems of financial institutions, even those of Canada. Consequently, the Bank of Canada provided liquidities to the banks.

Finance committee  With regard to the value of the liquidities, let us say that our balance sheet is of 50 billion dollars normally. The high for liquidities in the Bank of Canada, not the government of Canada, is approximately 40 billion dollars. Right now, we are talking about 22 or 23 billion dollars.

Finance committee  I would first of all like to underscore the fact that the rise in fixed mortgage rates had begun before we made our decision. As I have just said, it was due to an increase in the cost of funds for banks. The main reason was the increase in government of Canada treasury bond rates.

Finance committee  Well, we do care about people's debt, and we care for two reasons. We're here to discuss the monetary policy report, so I'll focus on that aspect, but there's also a financial stability concern. With respect to monetary policy, our concern is that the rates on debt, the take-up on debt, is one of the factors that obviously influence, in the case of households, residential investment, home buying, renovation, etc., and consumption.

Finance committee  No, that's the end.

Finance committee  In some respects this goes back to the question from Mr. McCallum earlier about the risk of household spending being higher than expected. Our expectation is that there is going to be a slowdown in the rate of debt accumulation of households, most notably through the mortgage side and the residential side.