Finance committee  These were individual conversations. We did not convene a meeting of all participants. That was done by the participants. They took the decision to do that. Subsequent to the accord, there was a meeting of the Governor of the Bank of Canada, me, other representatives of the Bank of Canada, and some of the principal investors.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  The short answer is that I see no connection. But the basic point, which bears repeating, is that in that type of situation, which is extremely unlikely, so we're talking purely hypothetically, the Bank of Canada plays a role as lender of last resort upon the advice of OSFI that the institution is solvent but illiquid.

Finance committee  In terms of the first part of the question, when I was overseas with an investment banking firm, my work was principally with sovereign governments, particularly emerging markets as they really emerged. For example, there was South Africa, when the ANC came to power and they were doing their first financings, Korea, and other nations like that.

Finance committee  We'll go farther back. I've never been a member of any political party, no.

Finance committee  You cannot guarantee it, but it is consistent with it. As I said in my remarks, the experience of inflation targeting has coincided with the second-longest expansion in our history and low volatility around output and interest rates.

Finance committee  Thank you for that. As you know--and it bears repeating--the bank targets total inflation. That's the objective, because that's the basket Canadians recognize in terms of consumption. There is volatility around eight items in particular in that total basket of 31, particularly related to food and energy, so we take those out in terms of our day-to-day targeting.

Finance committee  I applied for this position. There was a public announcement that you would have seen in major Canadian papers and internationally, and I applied for it. It was just like for any other job.

Finance committee  There was an interview process. There is a board of governors of the bank--not the board that makes the policy decisions but a board of governors of the bank that represents various provinces in the country. There's an executive committee of the board. That executive committee--

Finance committee  The finance minister is not on the board.

Finance committee  In my position at the Department of Finance I had overall senior oversight responsibility for international operations in the financial sector, as well as budgetary responsibilities, and I was the alternate member of FSC, which is the financial stability committee, if you will. So it was in that context that I was involved, and continued to be involved, in the development of the Montreal accord, up until my getting this position.

Finance committee  I believe capital market participants will make appropriate decisions, in terms of the structure, with which to organize businesses and which securities to buy or sell. That is a decision for capital market participants. A framework exists with tax neutrality between various corporate structures, and market participants make the decision about which structure and which entity to purchase.

Finance committee  I'll refer to my earlier answer on advice to ministers.

Finance committee  From the conduct of monetary policy, and looking through to the growth and output, the impact on employment, and ultimately, for us, the impact on inflation, it makes sense to look at wealth in aggregate. The big bits of wealth are equity market capitalization in aggregate, the performance of fixed income security, and, very importantly, housing wealth.

Finance committee  Thank you for that. One of the problems with success is that you forget why you put in place the framework to begin with. As I said in my remarks, we've had 15 years of low, stable, and predictable inflation. We owe it to my predecessors and the excellent and dedicated staff at the bank for achieving that success, but we have had 15 years, and people do forget about the costs of inflation.