Finance committee  Actually, that's a very controversial question, and I don't really have sufficient research on it, other than to say that it's obviously a huge and increasing portion of our capital markets. It's more of a tax deferment issue, but I decline to talk on that.

Finance committee  No, they would not have an impact.

Finance committee  Well, the offshore investment rules really are complex. Tax lawyers in the big downtown Toronto firms are scratching their heads at understanding them, and the problem is that they've been changed so many times. Every time they've fixed some of the rules problems, they've created new ones.

Finance committee  The Canadian investment industry generally is fairly conservative. It's very consultant-driven. What we're seeing to date is that most of the expansion into foreign asset classes with the removal of the 30% foreign content limit is on the fixed income side, but we're also seeing, at the same time--and again, it's triggered by the demographic blip of Canadians getting older and the pension crisis--a move to more higher alpha products.

Finance committee  For Canadian RRSPs, it would immediately allow them, and the individual Canadians, to increase the universe of potential investments to other markets where there are potentially higher growth opportunities and to essentially provide for security for them and their families in their retirement years.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. The Investment Counsel Association of Canada is the representative entity for investment counsel and portfolio management firms that manage in excess of $500 billion on behalf of Canadians. Much of that money is pension money. It is our view that to ensure the future economic health and prosperity of Canada, employees and the employers managing money for them must be able to save for retirement to reduce the burden on future generations.