No, it is line 9 page 16.
Evidence of meeting #68 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #68 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
On the amendment it says line 13 on page 15, but that is not correct.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
I find this very strange and ludicrous. First of all, I want to clarify that all we are doing in this section of the bill is adding the words, in paragraph 448.3(1)(a), regarding ATMs. The government's amendment still has that same clause in. It's (a) in their amendment and it's (a) in the bill. So all we are suggesting is that we add those few words to (a). It's not earth-shattering. It's not changing anything. It's simply giving consumers information, that's it.
Could I ask then the government to accept this as a friendly amendment?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
On your amendment you did not have the letter (a), and that's why we thought it was for replacing the clause.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
I'm not the one who wrote the amendment, and if we're going to fix the fault, it's not my fault, this is your—
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
In the haste of trying to meet the deadlines, we worked with good, hardworking staff and legislative counsel who did their best. We did our best. You know the intention. It says the line it involves.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
You mean you have nothing to say on this? You don't even want the word “ATMs” added? You have nothing to say on this?
11:50 a.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Mr. Chairman, I have to admit I do not know if it is a good thing. I am somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of declaring amendments inadmissible without the Committee being able to take a position on those issues. Many public organizations are able to...
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Mr. St-Cyr, I did not give you the floor. Give me 30 seconds.
Ms. Wasylycia-Leis, it's because the (a) was missing. So if we go back to government amendment 2 and we look at (a) that we just adopted, if we just look at government amendment G-2, the section on (a), what we adopted would be “information about all charges applicable to the registered product”, and then you would add, “including all charges arising from the use of automated banking machines”. Is that correct?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Okay. We thought this was replacing it.
I would prefer if we had the finance department officials speak first.
11:50 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I was going to perhaps address that, Mr. Chairman, because I understand the interest in the ATM fees.
The clause, however, deals with disclosure requirements for registered products. These registered products are RRSPs, RRIFs, and RESPs, and for the government to have authority to regulate what kinds of disclosures are required for those products. There really are no ATM fees generally involved with these products, so whether the clause is there or not, they don't apply on those particular accounts. You don't deal with these products on ATM machines.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
I appreciate the explanation, and I had understood that to be the case, but in fact what we are dealing with is a situation where automated banking machines have become a part of our way of doing banking everywhere. There is no reference anywhere in the Bank Act or the regulations except for one specific reference dealing with foreign banks. Here we have a situation where it's a prominent part of our banking system and there is not a single reference anywhere. So I'm taking the only available clause to try to get this in the act so at least it's referenced.
If someone can come up with a better idea, fine, but I think we can't leave this whole process and not have some reference to information around ATMs and fees when time has evolved and we're dealing with a change in the whole banking world.
I just want to say that and to note the silence of the Liberals on this issue.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Okay, so we're just dealing with NDP-3 right now. I'm not going to touch NDP-4.
Monsieur Paquette.
