Finance committee  Sure. I have two very quick points. In my case, we manage $5 billion, which seems like a larger business. In the sphere of financial services we are one one-hundredth the size of the chartered banks. I think in the context of financial services, we are very much a small business

Finance committee  I would say that in the domestic retail banking that would be true, yes. It's hard for us to draw a comparison beyond that, because we're not engaged in the kinds of activities they are.

Finance committee  That's correct. Again, in my credit union's case, 100% of our capital—99.4%, I believe—is actually retained earnings of the organization. Across Canada it's in the neighbourhood of 80%, whereas the banks' share of capital that comes from retained earnings is somewhere in the ne

Finance committee  Yes, credit unions across Canada are CMHC-insured lenders.

Finance committee  They were?

Finance committee  I don't know if that's a fair comparison.

Finance committee  Not to my knowledge, no.

Finance committee  It's not yes or no; it's that I don't know what the banks' credential capital requirements are.

Finance committee  We do not have an emergency lending agreement set up with the Bank of Canada. Liquidity is managed for the credit union systems provincially, as they are regulated....

Finance committee  I think you may be commingling the issues of liquidity, which is money in and out, versus capital equity in the institutions.

Finance committee  For liquidity purposes, yes.

Finance committee  We do have liquidity structures between credit unions. What I would argue is that it doesn't solve our capital challenge, which is that we need to have sufficient level of earnings to grow capital to continue the sustainable business model we've enjoyed for 75 years, which is dif

Finance committee  We are absolutely at a disadvantage. Our proposal argues to understand the unique structure of credit unions and to have tax policy that supports us building a robust, sustainable capital framework for credit unions.

Finance committee  What we've asked for historically is that there be a mandate review, for instance, where Farm Credit and the credit union system could come together to actually cooperate in serving Canada's farmers. For instance, Farm Credit doesn't provide businesses around wealth management or

Finance committee  We were hopeful, yes.