Conservative Government acted to reduce inappropriate risks

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today said that the Conservative Government’s early actions helped put Canada’s banks in a better position to deal with the ongoing global financial problems.

“Our Government saw the U.S. problems coming more than a year ago, so we weatherproofed Canada’s banks before the storm hit,” the Prime Minister said.

“We ended risky practices like zero-down payment mortgages,” he said. “We brought in new rules for banks to disclose and discourage inappropriate risks. And since earlier this year, we have been working at home and with our international partners, to implement more than 60 measures and initiatives to strengthen and reform both the Canadian and global banking and financial sectors.”

Prime Minister Harper said that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will be meeting this weekend with other G7 Finance Ministers and the International Monetary Fund. At the meetings, Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty will indicate:

• Canada supports the proposal for a summit of G7 heads of government to further develop a co-ordinated international response to the current banking crisis.
• The actions of the Bank of Canada have already been increasing liquidity in the Canadian financial system – including an increase of $20 billion available to our banks.
• We believe other nations should adopt Canada’s mortgage rules, which effectively do not allow people to purchase houses that they simply cannot afford.

“We’ve had a plan for the past year to deal with the banking crisis,” the Prime Minister said. “And it’s why our banks are safe and other countries’ banks are not.”