Finance committee  We never express an official opinion on the value of the dollar.

Finance committee  Thank you. First, I'll say for the committee's benefit that there are frequent communications between the governors of the G-7, G-10, and G-20 central banks now, but very frequent direct meetings, monthly meetings, face-to-face, more frequent telephone conversations. Unfortunately, there were very frequent conversations around this time last year, because there was a lot to talk about, and through into the year.

Finance committee  If parity...?

Finance committee  Thank you for your question. First, I would like to make it clear that my speech in Montreal yesterday was more for consumption outside our borders than inside Canada. To repeat, during the crisis, our financial institutions worked together in a spirit of close cooperation. They did so very effectively and in a way that served Canada well.

Finance committee  It is not a matter of new responsibilities; the responsibilities are the same as they were before the crisis. If it is part of a system, a financial institution has a responsibility to that system. I will finish my answer in English. What was clear, internationally, was that a number of institutions did not behave in that fashion.

Finance committee  We provide national projections, Canadian projections, but we do not provide projections for specific provinces. I can tell you that some sectors will be more affected. The manufacturing sector, for example, undergoes difficulties when the dollar is consistently strong or increasingly volatile.

Finance committee  With respect to the first part, the division of labour, I'll underscore what I said yesterday and what Paul Jenkins said earlier in another public speech about a month ago, consistent with the words of the Minister of Finance: the Minister of Finance has overall responsibility for the financial system.

Finance committee  Thank you. The first thing I would say, as I mentioned in my opening statement, is that what is important ultimately is that we have sufficient instruments to achieve our inflation target, and I would remind you—I know that you know this—that the objective of the Bank of Canada is to conduct, across the suite of policy options that we have, all those policies in order to achieve the 2% CPI inflation target.

Finance committee  Again, the instruments that we have are to achieve the inflation target. When we last met at this committee, in April, we had published a similar report, and the annex of that report detailed a strategy, our principles and our policy for unconventional monetary policy--policy of very low interest rates, which included options of credit easing or quantitative easing—and the conditional commitment that we have put into force.

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair. Thanks for having us. Good morning, Mr. Chair and distinguished committee members. Mr. Jenkins and I are pleased to appear before this committee today to discuss the Bank of Canada's views on the economy and our monetary policy stance. While conditions in the Canadian economy have improved since we met here in February and April, many of the basic challenges remain.

Finance committee  Wow.

Finance committee  Are you sure that clock's right? The—

Finance committee  I think on the Monetary Policy Report, or our projections, my personal feeling is that we probably have it about right. I take your perspective if you want to see this more frequently, but there's a lot of work that goes into this. Having the projection updated four times a year, you get a better-quality projection, if you will.

Finance committee  I think there are a couple of aspects there. One aspect is this issue of opacity or lack of transparency, of money being held outside the net, if you will, of taxation. Related to that is aggressive tax planning that utilizes these environments. I believe the government has taken a look at the international taxation regime for Canada, which includes the appropriate use of third countries for tax planning.

Finance committee  Very briefly, the point I was trying to make in the reference was that there is a tax planning element to this and a competitiveness element to this that has to be considered. Then there's the fundamental issue, which you're raising, in terms of tax evasion, effectively--which is very on point for continental Europe--through the use of banking secrecy and other mechanisms and various tax havens, which is being addressed through this.