While the regulations placed the greatest emphasis on lending, they encouraged innovative approaches to addressing community development credit needs. Several provisions were included to reduce compliance costs, among them a new rule that allowed small banks to meet their requirements by means of a streamlined examination focused on lending activities.
But it did not, because of the three factors I listed above. A major shift in a country’s terms-of-trade is one of the most complex situations an economic forecaster can face. We have said from the beginning that while there would be both negative and positive effects from lower oil prices on Canada, the negative effects would dominate, and they would come first.