Finance committee  Absolutely. The same people who have appeared before you have spoken to us extensively. Everyone is well aware of the issue. It is being looked at with great care.

Finance committee  We are aware of that. I think the people who appeared before you were from an association. This is not as if it's a single company that's trying to do something. It's a group of companies, which means that every single one would have to be dealt with individually. The facility wa

Finance committee  Let's first understand that the triple-A rating requirement was part of the budget, so we were asked to undertake the CSCF with a triple-A rating as the requirement. We're starting with what we were given. Secondly, the way to get to a triple-A rating is by putting up extra coll

Finance committee  Correct.

Finance committee  At this point, people have to come back to us in a matter of weeks, saying how much of the facility they will take up now that we've committed to it. They have to come back and say they'll take it all, take half, or whatever. One told us he'd found cheaper financing and wouldn't

Finance committee  Definitely.

Finance committee  Except that you have to take into account that there are a few more factors, like the fact that we're in a recession, and consumer behaviour, I'm sure, is affected by that. There are all sorts of other reasons. But technically, in terms of the finance market, yes.

Finance committee  If I could add to that, I'm a relative newcomer to BDC, with only four years of service, but we do have people who were there in the 1982 recession and people who were there in the 1991 recession. What I'm hearing from these people is that never has the bank been more aggressive

Finance committee  It's very tough for me to respond to that question, because we're just one instrument of public policy among many in the arsenal of the government. There are, as you know, regional economic development agencies.

Finance committee  We don't have a loan-loss reserve ratio. Everything is on our balance sheet. One of the ways that has been done in the past--not frequently, but it has been done in the past--is for the government to provide us with a loan-loss reserve in some cases for specific programs where

Finance committee  Our hope is that by now the large auto and equipment companies, knowing that the BDC will be buying their paper, are talking to their dealers and saying, “We now have the ability to go back to leasing and lending like the good old days, so go ahead and be aggressive in the market

Finance committee  No, there are a couple of large numbers in there exceeding $1 billion.

Finance committee  Yes, $300 million, that's correct.

Finance committee  No. Let me try to reconcile the numbers. We have $12 billion to allocate. The first allocation was done in two pieces, $10 billion and $1 billion, which leaves $1 billion for the month of August.

Finance committee  They will basically now go back and package their.... Let's take the example of autos, because that's one we're all familiar with. They will take, let's say, their auto leases or auto loans and create a bundle of those, adding up to $300 million. This would be looked at by rating