Finance committee  Good morning. My name is Nicolas Marion. I work as a chief at the Capital Markets and International Affairs Division of the Department of Finance. I am joined by Allan Prochazka, also from the Department of Finance.

Finance committee  Thank you for your question. I am not a lawyer, so I cannot speak to the legal aspect. However, when you read the Supreme Court's decision, you can see that the court clearly said that securities regulation was a responsibility shared by the provinces and the federal government.

Finance committee  The Supreme Court said that, if the objective was to create a Canada-wide organization with provincial and federal jurisdictions under the same umbrella, the two levels of government should work together.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I'd like to specify that I'm not a lawyer, so I can't give a legal opinion on the decision of the court. However, I have read the decision, and the Supreme Court did confirm a role for Parliament with respect to the regulation of securities, particul

Finance committee  The short answer is no, because there are very specific limits attached to the passport regime. The system does not affect the enforcement of legislation. So the passport regime isn't necessarily intended to improve the law enforcement framework. In addition, the passport regime

Finance committee  Thank you for the question and the comment. I think what the federal government is trying to do is improve the securities regulatory framework. And to do that, it must indeed work with the provinces to come up with a governance framework that works, is more effective and better

Finance committee  I'll give you a few points of clarification with respect to the figures. I think $86 billion is the totality of Canada's official international reserves. Within that, there is a portion that are within the exchange fund account. Within the exchange fund account, we have the fixed

Finance committee  There is the IMF reserve position as well.

Finance committee  There are two points here. Mr. Chair, if you would like us to speak about the next division—

Finance committee  Would you like us to proceed with that now?

Finance committee  Excellent, Thank you, Mr. Chair. The exchange fund account represents the largest component of Canada's official international reserves. In 2011, the government announced that the exchange fund account would be part of the government's prudential liquidity plan if, for instance,

Finance committee  This is a technical amendment in the sense that the policy was announced by the government back in 2011 and it has been reiterated in every subsequent budget that the funds within the exchange fund account would be available for liquidity purposes if, for instance, domestic marke

Finance committee  There are a couple of different ways. There is a statutory requirement for the minister to report on the exchange fund account, on the management of Canada's official international reserves, on an annual basis. It's a document that's tabled in Parliament, typically in October, fo

Finance committee  Under the Currency Act, there is currently a mechanism for advances to be made from the consolidated revenue fund to the exchange fund account. That mechanism exists, and some would suggest that the concept of advancement of funds embodies a concept of being able to transfer the

Finance committee  Exactly.