Finance Committee on May 1st, 2012
Evidence of meeting #55 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mutual.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Jeremy Rudin Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
- Normand Lafrenière President, Canadian Association of Mutual Insurance Companies
- Karen Gavan President and Chief Executive Officer, Economical Insurance Group
- Dan Lister President and Chief Executive Officer, Kings Mutual Insurance Company
- James Wu Chief, Financial Institutions Division, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
To the department officials, like my colleagues, I'm struggling a little bit with the call for the briefs to come in to the department. I assume that the original intent of those briefs coming in was to inform the minister in advance of this. Where in that equation was the plan to inform this committee? Was there a plan to do that?
4:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
The first purpose of the consultation was to get information and opinion in order to inform the minister and to help departmental officials, such as myself, to provide our recommendations. It's common, although there is not a hard and fast policy, to share those submissions publicly. We think it's a good approach and we are planning on doing that.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Excuse me for a second here. I'm not talking about sharing them publicly—I was talking about sharing them with a committee of Parliament.
4:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I see what you mean.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
4:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
In some cases, we do not publish the submissions, although those who submit are free to publish them on their own. In other cases, we make them available to the general public, and so in that way to the committee members.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
So the committee has to duplicate your work at some point, if we want to get access to the information and the decision was made not to publish it.
4:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I appreciate that.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
This is a very valuable tool to our committee and in our efforts.
I look back to how our government—I don't expect departmental officials to respond to this—has said that we did so well in the recession because of the regulation factor.
In fact, I'll turn it on its head just a little. I will ask you a question. The call for submissions, the activity from the minister's office, was that generally solely because Economical wanted to make this change, or were there other groups calling for the same kind of change?
4:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
That's a good question. Let me defer to my colleague here. Certainly, Economical, I was aware of. Were there any others?
May 1st, 2012 / 4:30 p.m.
James Wu Chief, Financial Institutions Division, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No, Economical was the key stakeholder that brought forward a request for a demutualization framework to be put in place.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Wayne Marston Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
At least they're going to keep us working.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler York Centre, ON
Thank you, Chair, and my thanks to all the witnesses for appearing here today.
If I wanted to get into the business, how would I go about it? What are some of the barriers to entry?
4:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Economical Insurance Group
To establish a mutual...?