Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Pacetti. This is quite important. It is imperative that the various reforms we've talked about this morning be consistent with the G-20 agreement, that they are agreed to at an international level. The crisis came from abroad and had a severe impact on Canada. So we need others to get their houses in order.

Finance committee  These are major decisions. Part of the issue is that a number of other economies are short of capital, and these regulations will accelerate the need to increase capital. So we have to calibrate the new impact studies.

Finance committee  We can construct that chart. It won't be perfect on a quarterly basis for the other comparatives, but we are happy to construct that chart and circulate it to the committee.

Finance committee  Yes. We have to get the transition right. We have to agree on that. We're on an accelerated basis. We've agreed to main principles. We're going to do the right impact studies over the course of the next six or nine months of 2010. The target, explicitly, and this was agreed to and publicly announced, is to have the pin put in--the actual numbers for these levels--and the formulae by the end of 2010.

Finance committee  Before the crisis and during the crisis, yes, absolutely.

Finance committee  The exchange fund account is the reserves of the Government of Canada. The bank acts as an agent for the Government of Canada in the management of those reserves. Those reserves have built up gradually in recent years. Part of the increase in reserves has been a result of some recent reforms to the IMF, the International Monetary Fund.

Finance committee  It is much more than just economic modelling. We discussed in the past that we have a series of economic models, over twenty economic models, that we use to form our judgments about the outlook for growth in Canada. Those judgments, though, are informed by meetings with all the major sectors in our economy, from energy, through manufacturing, through the retail sectors, etc.

Finance committee  I think there are a couple of uses of it. The reason we put it in is to compare it to page 10, which is the American outlook, which is the slowest recovery in the United States since the Great Depression. If you could see, for example, their build-up for this, it's not in the report....

Finance committee  I understand your concern, but I never said that.

Finance committee  No, it is not the translation. The Bank of Canada has a strong preference for principles-based regulation and reliance on the judgment of people rather than blind faith in the security blanket of excess capital, but against the backdrop of a new regulatory framework for institutions, an increase in tier 1 capital and the creation of a macroprudential buffer for banks.

Finance committee  It will be February or March, I believe.

Finance committee  That's an important question. Do I take it you don't want a comment on pensions?

Finance committee  Right. With respect to compensation, there have been very carefully developed, thoroughly developed—with the endorsement of President Sarcozy directly—compensation principles that have been agreed on at the G-20, were agreed to in Pittsburg. They are consistent with many of the points you made and go beyond compensation tied to longer-term performance, compensation that vests over time, so you can find out whether that longer-term performance actually happens; an ability to claw back compensation if it proves to be ephemeral; corporate governance reforms that allow shareholders, through the boards, to have a say on pay; and disclosure principles that would allow people to make informed decisions about those.

Finance committee  In my view, it is better to have principles and procedures to assure lawmakers that those principles are being implemented in Canada and internationally. The procedure set out by the G20 includes regulators and the Financial Stability Board. After the first run-through of the....

Finance committee  The U.S. dollar is the reserve currency of choice. That is not a right, it is a reality. Of choice, the United States dollar is the reserve currency, and we expect that to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.