Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the House of Commons Special Committee on Cooperatives, and thank you for this opportunity. My name is Frank Lowery. I am senior vice-president, general counsel, and secretary of The Co-operators Group Limited.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Okay, sure. The last comment I was addressing, and I'll just throw this in for the record, is that there's a thing in the U.K. called the Butterfills amendment, which allowed cooperative and mutual organizations to come together without compelling demutualization. I think this i

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I'll just add a little bit to that. In terms of the even playing field, on a federal level, under the Insurance Companies Act, you cannot incorporate a cooperative insurance company. In 1992, when the acts were revised, I was on the joint committee on behalf of cooperatives, wit

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Well, I actually did provide a copy earlier today to the clerk, or I gave it through the CCA, so you will get a copy of the material. I'll speak a little slower now. I have done that a couple of times and I was able to do it in 10 minutes, but obviously it's very hard to meet t

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Sorry.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think I'd be a little stronger than that. The Co-operators is a very transparent organization. If we send a letter to the chair of a committee and to the clerk, we intend it to be shared with the committee. I think she will stand behind those comments.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes. There is actually a longer reference. I wasn't able to rattle on, but I'd be happy to provide you with further information on that.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I'm not sure I can answer that question specifically. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been. Mr. Taylor can comment on this, but my understanding of the Ontario mutuals is that they are probably the best capitalized of most insurance companies. They have a dollar of ca

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I'll speak for The Co-operators first. We're an insurance company like any other insurance company, so we're subject to all of the same rules and prudential regulation as others are subject to. As you likely know, for federally regulated insurance companies, we have requirements

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Are you speaking about purchasing shares in us or are you speaking about the investments we hold?

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  In the case of The Co-operators, our structure as a cooperative—because it's at the holding company level—doesn't relate to the prudential regulations. So we're subject to the same prudential regulation as any other insurance company, on exactly the same basis, with no difference

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I don't really want to get into the politics of the current Parliament.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We sent it in. I've expressed my view as to what should happen with it. I think it's at the discretion of the chair to deal with it.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think cooperatives, mutuals, credit unions, and fraternal benefits—all these organizations—are not well understood by people generally. Because there's sort of a low level of understanding of these organizations, we've definitely expressed our view that more study should be don

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Do you mean the economic crisis from 2008 to date?