Meanwhile in Canada . . .

CBC's The Current this morning interviewed Stanley Hartt, the chair of the Advisory Committee on Financing. Finance Minister Flaherty describes the role of the committee this way:

Specifically, the ACF will provide expert advice to the Government on financing conditions and on the design, scope and scale of initiatives under the Extraordinary Financing Framework (EFF) and advise the Minister of Finance on their implementation and effectiveness. The EFF consists of up to $200 billion in existing and new measures to support the extension of financing to Canadian businesses and consumers during these exceptional times.

In the interview, Hartt, a former deputy minister of finance, indicated that what for him are very important questions remain to be answered, includng:

• how much of the $200 billion has been rolled out;
• what gaps does this leave (presumably in bank capitalization);
• and how and through what institutional mechanisms is it to be rolled out.

In other words, there appears to be little or no accountability on the part of the Federal government for this vast sum. And it appears to be making up implementation as it goes along.

If our banks are in such wonderful shape, why do they even need this.

And where is the opposition on this. In February, I spoke to the NDP Finance critics office about EFF and they appeared to have little interest in this. And the Liberals have been silent. This amount represents a seventh of our GDP. We deserve so much better than this.