This is something that concerns us a lot. We know that the Bank Act is federal jurisdiction, but some aspects of the act go into provincial jurisdiction in a complementary way. Consumer protection in banking, for example, is a provincial matter, complementary to the Bank Act. If we amend the preamble, as clause 525 in division 36 proposes, the spirit of the act would focus banking activities according to clear national standards, as Ms. Pearse confirmed when she appeared before us.
The Government of Quebec has come out strongly against this. I have in my possession a letter written to Mr. Flaherty, the Minister of Finance, by Jean-Marc Fournier, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Quebec in which, among other things, he expresses his concerns. The letter is dated April 19. Mr. Fournier questions one part of the bill that says that, in the national interest, it is desirable to provide for exclusive and national standards applicable to banking products and banking services. He is afraid that this might mean that all banking activity in the country would henceforth be regulated according to national standards. Mr. Fournier reminds Minister Flaherty that the two orders of government have complementary responsibilities in terms of regulating the activities of banks.
I know that the federal government previously ran into problems in its plans to regulate the financial sector and organizations like stock exchanges. So I see that there is a very clear danger of the federal government being challenged by Quebec over those provisions. At very least, before this change to the Bank Act is written, there should be consultations with the provinces in order to determine how they might react. No consultations of that kind have been held.
I see clearly that the government is going to come up against the same problems that it had in regulating financial institutions. That is why we are going to vote against that clause, in order to reflect the divided opinion and the lack of prior consultations that should have taken place.