Finance committee  It's certainly true that if you go back a few years, the Canadian financial system was criticized: it wasn't sufficiently dynamic and innovative; it wasn't keeping up or leading-edge; size was critical to success on the global front; if you looked at the relative rankings of Cana

Finance committee  I'll let you decide on where I am. I think the message is clear that the Canadian example of putting more weight on stability has served this country well.

Finance committee  Yes, I'm sorry, I do have to leave. I can take one more question.

Finance committee  Your question is about Canadian banks that have activities in the U.S.? That certainly is something that OSFI has been looking at closely. I think we're satisfied that they've managed those risks. Obviously it's been a more dynamic market, and the banks do need to manage that. I

Finance committee  I'll let Jeremy speak to that, as he's on the front lines of that one. I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave. Thank you very much. I appreciated the opportunity to be here.

Finance committee  To get to $200 billion, there is $40 billion of extraordinary liquidity provided by the Bank of Canada, and $10 billion is CMHC. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation--I think it was in November--introduced a new 10-year Canadian mortgage bond. This is a securitized bond of poo

Finance committee  If a leasing company indicates that it's prepared to be federally regulated and begins the process, then it will be eligible. The process does take a period of time. We realize that credit needs to flow as soon as possible. As long as it begins the process, it will be eligible.

Finance committee  To be really blunt about it, if we had to take a provision in the budget and it showed up in the deficit, then you'd be using taxpayers' money. It would be an expenditure, as opposed to an investment. These are investments. In the case of the insured mortgage purchase program,

Finance committee  This crisis began in the United States, and then spread to England, and then to other European countries. A major lesson to draw from this crisis is that fragmentation within the financial regulatory system will create shortfalls in many of the components of this system. In the U

Finance committee  There are many studies. Mr. Hockin produced a report recently. In addition to that, there were expert studies that we submitted to Mr. Hockin's panel of experts. Many well-informed people have produced reports. Canada has a long history in the area.

Finance committee  I believe that there are already many serious reports.

Finance committee  To get back to Mr. McKay's question, I have one bit of information. The Bank of Montreal, as well as CIBC and RBC, have already matched the bank's 50 basis point cut.

Finance committee  I think you want to focus on both, because the banks are certainly very much at the core of the system, and even if they aren't the core of the problem, they could be a bigger part of the solution. That's why they're working more closely with EDC and BDC, and that's why we have g

Finance committee  Obviously, the bank just made its announcement. There's typically a delay before the private banks react, so we'll see what they do. Certainly through this crisis, with I think only one exception, they have matched the cuts in the bank rate in terms of their prime rate. This is a

Finance committee  Yes, I would agree that those statistics are surprising. I certainly don't want to pretend that there isn't a difficult situation out there. As you pointed out, government is taking very extraordinary actions, and there must be a reason. How do you square the circle? Well, it's