Evidence of meeting #51 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was capital.
A video is available from Parliament.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Welcome here, everybody. Thank you for being here today. Thank you, all. This has been a very fulsome discussion. I would like to engage each and every one of you, but I only have seven minutes so I'm going to pick and choose here.
Let me start off with Mr. Kirkby.
You have made some pretty serious allegations here today. It seems like you're relying on some anecdotal evidence to support your allegations. Do you have anything more than anecdotal evidence?
6 p.m.
As an Individual
I don't understand why you would say that, “anecdotal evidence”. I followed a process that's considered an excellent process in qualitative research. I went through all of the steps—
6 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Excuse me, this is my time.
If I may, you mentioned that there's political interference in CRA. I would like just like to know, and I'm sure the committee would like to know, what evidence you have of that.
6 p.m.
As an Individual
Sure. I have the evidence of what I heard from the leaders and the experts condensed, and also looking at the literature—
6 p.m.
As an Individual
No, it is absolutely not anecdotal evidence. It's based on people's experience.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Okay, thank you very much.
You also mentioned charities you had spoken to that had seemed to have problems with being audited. I know Mr. Van Kesteren next me, who runs a car dealership, has been audited a number of times he's told me. He's not in a charitable business, I can guarantee you that.
There are organizations like IRFAN and ISNA. IRFAN has been sending money to Hamas, and ISNA to a terrorist group in Pakistan. Are these the kinds of expert charitable organizations that you are referring to or relying on for your evidence?
6 p.m.
As an Individual
Some of the charities I spoke to were among, I would say, many Canadians' favourite charities, small and large, in different sectors, and in different provinces.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Okay, thank you.
I have a quote here from the commissioner and deputy commissioner of CRA. It says:
As I have made clear in the past, the process for identifying which charities will be audited (for any reason) is handled by the Directorate itself and is not subject to political direction.
6:05 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
No. You can choose to answer, but I would be happy if it's brief.
6:05 p.m.
As an Individual
Sure. You've given $13.4 million now to CRA, told it to change its priorities on what it's auditing, hired a whole bunch of new people, specified to go and look at political activities. Some individual MPs—
6:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
It is your time, but I think if a question is asked we should allow a witness to answer it.
Do you have a further question or do you want to move on?
6:05 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
I'm moving on.
Mr. Campbell, Canadian banks have a reputation of being healthy and strong, comparatively speaking.
How strong are the Canadian banks right now compared to other global banks? For example, Canadian banks are very efficient. They have excellent return on earnings, but the capital position of other banks around the world has improved drastically.
Is this going to put competitive pressure on Canadian banks to change their behaviour? Could you address that, please?
6:05 p.m.
President, Canadian Bankers Association
You're right on a number of fronts there.
You're right that the capital positions of banks around the world, which were found efficient in 2007, 2008, and 2009, had to raise their levels to the level of Canadian banks. Then, of course, everybody has to move from that point on.
I draw your attention to the headlines of just a couple of days ago. I think 20-plus European banks failed their stress test which is a stress test on capital. Canadian banks are consistently and materially above what OSFI requires. It's a very competitive world. The World Economic Forum has judged us to have the strongest and soundest banks seven years running, and I hope that will carry on.
To bring things to a focus, in my remarks I said we were always well capitalized. That's still true. We were all very well managed with a big focus on prudence. That has sure not changed. But we're also very well regulated. We have OSFI as a good and strong supervisor. We've got a new leader there. I think he's going to carry on with that tradition, so I don't see the fundamentals changing.