Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell—and the others; I'm anticipating they'll want to chime in here from time to time.
As you know, any time you deal with banks, everybody has a negative bank story to tell, and you end up side-barred into a whole bunch of other issues. While I don't think there's much disagreement among members about the substance of this bill, there are a few things that grate here, which possibly there's an opportunity to fix.
My overall impression is that the amendments proposed are really catching up to the 20th century, when we're in fact in the 21st century. They don't address the core issue, which is that Canadians have embraced electronic banking very enthusiastically, whether computer banking, ATMs, or whatever. It speaks to the issue of what they expect in their electronic network and how the banks and the regulatory regime, in some respects, haven't kept up.
I referred earlier to a question to the minister, which I would appreciate you and the officials taking a crack at, with respect to moneys being removed from an account to pay for a bill, which is presumably within the payment clearance system, and that transaction not being instantaneous. We still seem to want to bundle checks across the country. Whether it's four days or seven days, it's rather irrelevant to electronic transfers these days. I would be interested in your general comments. You heard the question specifically.
I buttress that question as well with an e-mail I received from a constituent, and again I'd ask for your comment on this: “We have, for as long as it has been offered, viewed our statements via the bank's electronic payment and presentation service. Unlike other monthly statements”—for example, hydro, taxes, or whatever—“we view through the servers, however, the option to download an image of our Visa statement is not available.” So he can't watch his statement accumulating over the course of the month, for some strange reason.
The general comment is that you seem to already be behind the times, and all this is going to do is create more frustrations and irritations. I'd ask you to respond, both you and the officials, not only to the inquiry I sent to the minister but also to this particular question.