Sure. The subsidies I'm talking about are the offers to buy back mortgages through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the more than $40 billion in capital the Bank of Canada has injected into the financial markets, and the other programs being provided to various financing streams in which the banks and other large financial institutions all participate. If it were all drawn down on by the banks, it would add up to a subsidy of more $200 billion.
We're saying that the government should require the banks to do something meaningful in return. The best thing to do is to ensure that they're serving everyone fairly and well at fair prices and interest rates. One of the main ways to empower consumers and give them a subsidy in the same way is to require the banks and other financial institutions to send out this one-page pamphlet in the envelopes they mail out to customers every month.
In case you're wondering whether this idea comes out of left field, it was endorsed by the MacKay task force on financial services and also by the House and Senate committees in 1998. It just hasn't been acted on by any finance minister since. It's about time, because there would be no cost to the government and no cost to the industry. It would give customers a place to call their own and would balance the marketplace in many key ways.