moved for leave to introduce Bill C-379, An Act to amend the Bank Act (use of word “bank”, “banker” or “banking”).
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in this place on behalf of the constituents of Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola to table a private member's bill based on consultations I have done with my own constituents and have heard right across this great country.
Credit unions and caisse populaires are key drivers of our economy, particularly in rural areas, where there is not a lot of access to other financial institutions. There have been a lot of questions raised by a compliance order placed by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions that basically are contrary to the traditional use of the words banking, banker, or whatnot. This legislation seeks to address that and to make it completely certain so that when people walk into a credit union, they can ask if it does online banking, and the institution would be able to say yes.
This private member's legislation would work on trying to build that certainty that would allow our credit unions the traditional usage of those terms, making sure that they were following clearly, according to law, the long-standing practice.
I hope I can gather all-party support. I certainly have received a lot of positive feedback from members in this place and also from the all-party parliamentary credit union caucus.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
