Very quickly, the term “toxic assets”, at least in this round of financial crises, originated and was applied to a range of structured products. They included those based on subprime mortgages, but much more broadly, they were effectively related to broken markets, structured securitization markets that no longer functioned well. The term has been broadened considerably, and you sometimes see the term “legacy assets” or “troubled assets”. The broadening now includes basically non-performing assets, including non-performing loans, that are affected by the recession in the downturn.
Let me make a general point, because you asked about your role here, that there is not a toxic asset problem in Canada. We don't have these concentrations, nor is there a concentrated pool of troubled assets that reflect difficult economic circumstances. The general point is that when you get into a banking crisis—so it's relevant for the U.S., it's relevant for the U.K., it was relevant for Sweden in the 1990s—you look for concentrations of troubled assets, using the broad definition. It could be real estate lending. And then in order to relaunch the banks, there are different alternatives, but there's a decision to be taken to separate those assets, in a fair way for taxpayers, from those institutions and relaunch those institutions.
