Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. MacKinnon. With the aging population, business transfers are becoming an increasingly alarming issue. It's a problem we've seen for ourselves. The Mouvement Desjardins serves about 400,000 businesses, mostly small and medium enterprises. Business transfers can be

Finance committee  The Mouvement Desjardins is an association of caisses, an association of small financial institutions. Unfortunately, the government considers each of the caisses as a separate entity for reporting purposes, which in most cases forces us to file more than 300 reports, whereas a b

Finance committee  It depends on the number of entities, but as for the bank, it would be one. I can't answer as to their overall structure, but for the activity of the bank itself, it would be one.

Finance committee  Absolutely, yes. The federal structure is not easily accepted. We are having ongoing discussions with the Department of Finance to really sell the concept of an integrated financial group, meaning a group that can fully abide by the rules on risk management and compliance. Clearl

Finance committee  Absolutely. Yes, we feel the demand. The tightening of the rules will have an impact in Quebec as in the other provinces. Those are the predictions of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation as well.

Finance committee  It is a specific measure. I know the government is working on alternatives in order to promote access to housing and ownership. The increase in property values does of course have an impact on taxes, whether land transfer taxes or municipal and school taxes. Some will increase p

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. First, I must say that your first comment regarding debt ratios is very relevant. We know that household debt has increased substantially in recent years. The ratio currently sits at about 170%. We must certainly bear in mind the value of assets as co

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, the measures are very recent and they include a number of components. One of them is intended to close a tax loophole. That was primarily directed at foreign investors. It has been well received on the whole, because it had become clear that cert

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Bernard Brun, and I'm here on behalf of Desjardins Group. I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to share our input today and contribute to the prebudget consultations in advance of the 2017 federal budget. It is especially lovely

International Trade committee  In fact, that is one of the aspects that we examined. We have to look back at the structure of the Desjardins Group, which is a financial cooperative. It is wise to remember that, of the major Canadian financial institutions, Desjardins is, ultimately, the only one that is 100 pe

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee, I would like to give a brief introduction to the name of the Desjardins Group. First, I want to thank you for the invitation. It is much appreciated. My name is Bernard Brun. I am the Director of Government Relations for the Desja

Finance committee  Well, cutting the red tape for small and medium-sized companies is a major issue. For example, in the financial sector we know that by having a cohesive group with the federation, we were able to manage a lot of the compliance issues, but for small credit unions red tape is somet

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  If you don't mind, I will answer the question in French. With regard to Dutch disease, one must be very careful. Theories that apply to one territory or country cannot necessarily be transferred in their entirety to another. An important part of Canada's economy depends on its r

Finance committee  An example of a general economic measure would be the support programs for research and development. We will always need these types of programs. We are strongly urging the government to continue its efforts in this area and implement programs to promote research and development.