Finance committee  I think we've had a very good review of the issues. If there's a need to come back, I'll make myself available.

Finance committee  The mortgage marketplace in Canada, based on my last 15 years, is incredibly competitive. You may recall that at one time, if you had a mortgage, you may have been paying a posted-rate type of mortgage, whereas now you look at its being heavily discounted. To that end, lenders are going to be looking for business partners who can help them explore new markets.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Yes, by virtue of creating a market advantage. Currently I'm not a lender, but to create a market advantage in the market--

Finance committee  From the perspective of how it works, some lenders control the decisions centrally, sir; for other lenders, it's decentralized. It could be a branch manager, it could be a mortgage specialist, or it could be a mortgage broker. Whoever puts out the product that makes sense for that particular clientele is where the value proposition would be.

Finance committee  Mr. Dykstra, I will elaborate on the process. To give you some sense of the timeframe that's involved, we first looked at Canada in 2003. That was the first time we said, in a very serious manner, that this is a great market opportunity. It is a huge market served by only two players, and we think there's an opportunity to add value.

Finance committee  I think any time you introduce more competition into the market, Mr. Savage, you are going to see that we need to compete on a platform. The platform on which we are going to compete, as I said earlier, is both urban and rural, right across the country, on the majority, up and down the street, for Canadian consumers.

Finance committee  If I may, AIG United Guaranty, coming into the market as a mortgage insurer, may provide comfort to those lenders that in the past may not have wanted to participate in a certain segment of the Canadian consumer marketplace. By virtue of providing insurance, they may recognize now that the new immigrants coming into Canada may provide an opportunity wherein they can compete more aggressively.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. By definition, when coming into an established marketplace, one needs to compete on a number of different factors of product, innovation, and price. While I'm not in a position, with my competitors being in the room, to say the price is going to change by x percent, I can give you a very comfortable level, being on the public record today.

Finance committee  Mr. Turner, in terms of the first question, as a Canadian with 15 years of experience in the Canadian mortgage market, leading a Canadian team, hiring Canadians across the country, and having some degree of expertise in the Canadian market, we will operate with the highest ethical standards and we'll operate right across this country by providing value to consumers.

Finance committee  Mr. Turner, as a third player coming into the marketplace, we need to look at where our competition is not. We need to be a full service provider coast to coast, operating right across this country. We've looked at a number of market opportunities in addition to being a full service provider, competing head to head with our competitors, but we're going to look also at the new immigrant market, we're going to look at the self-employed market.

Finance committee  Introducing another well-capitalized mortgage insurer into a marketplace that is the size of Canada, the second-largest mortgage default market in the world, does not represent a disruption at all. As a case in point, our current competitors, Genworth and CMHC, each have a market share of at least 30% and 70% respectively.

Finance committee  Seven to eight years.

Finance committee  Yes, sir.

Finance committee  Mr. McCallum, with respect to servicing all markets, it's our commitment to be a national provider with a focus in both urban and rural markets. If we can sit back to reflect for a moment, as a third mortgage provider coming into the market with two very well-established competitors—one, we estimate, CMHC, having about a 70% market share, and Genworth having about a 30% market share—clearly our challenge is to make sure we have a value proposition for all markets.