Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the attempts here to add a little bit of substance and some kind of measure to make sure this leads somewhere. That's great.
I'll comment first on what in it concerns me, and then what's not in it. I have a greater concern about that part of it.
First, I'll just touch on the travel side of it. I think that's maybe unnecessary. Well, it's not maybe: It is unnecessary. I don't mean to say that we shouldn't look at the experience of other jurisdictions, but is there really a need to travel to do this? I don't believe there would be, Mr. Chair. I think it could certainly be done by video conference and teleconference, and through reports that have been put out that have looked at what's been done, without our having to travel. That seems to be a bit excessive. I would have a problem with that.
More important is what's not included. As I'm sure most members are aware, the Department of Finance currently has consultations under way on open banking. The advisory committee on open banking that was set up in September of last year has been tasked with consulting on this viewpoint. This isn't to say that the finance committee shouldn't look at it as well; that's not the point I'm making here.
Let me just read the mandate that committee was given to look at, including the following:
[whether ]open banking [would] provide meaningful benefits to and improve outcomes to Canadians...[and] in what ways....
in order for Canadians to feel confident in an open banking system, how should risks related to consumer protection, privacy, cyber security and financial stability be managed?
and
if you are of the view that Canada should move forward with implementing an open banking system, what role and steps are appropriate for the federal government to take in the implementation of open banking?
This is obviously something that at least the department and, one would think, the minister would have some thoughts on already. There's no indication in this as to what sort of direction, or whether there is a place, the government's looking to go to with this. It's fairly wide open, it seems. It's a consultation, but at least on the surface there doesn't appear to be any real direction, as there sometimes can be with these things, as to where the government is looking necessarily to go with it. My understanding from the people I've spoken to who have engaged with it is that it certainly seems as though that's the case. Those are the perceptions people have had of it as well.
I'm also of the understanding, from people whom I've spoken to, that there hasn't really been a lot occurring with this advisory committee. I don't know why that is or whether that means the government has no real intention of moving in that direction. If that's the case, is a study worth it? If it's not the case, then obviously this advisory committee on open banking—which, I will point out, is supposed to be wrapping up its consultations by February 11, which is just a few days away. What is supposed to occur after that is that—verbatim from the press release setting out the consultations—
the Committee will deliver a report assessing the merits of open banking for Canada, with a strong focus on protecting consumer privacy, ensuring the security of financial transactions and maintaining the stability of the financial sector. The Committee will consider implementation opportunities and challenges later in the year.
That does give us some sense of the direction this is looking to go. Obviously, given the fact that this work has been done and that there is some kind of a direction there, hearing from this advisory committee would be very important, I would think, in this regard. I think that should be a part of the motion. We're obviously dealing with this amendment, so we can deal with that, and I think maybe that's another amendment we could look at here. But I think it should be specifically outlined in here that we should hear from members of this advisory committee and get a sense as to what they've heard and what sort of direction things might be moving in here. That would only seem to make sense to me.
I would think it would also make sense, of course, that we would hear from the finance minister on this and get a sense as to what direction the government is looking at, and what it would see as useful for the committee to look at and study. There's no point in the committee doing something in isolation.
If there are other things at work and at play here, why would we not all try to coordinate those things and do the best job we can to make sure that we're learning from the experiences of the other committee, the minister, and so on, especially given that it says here that this committee “will consider implementation opportunities and challenges”, and it says also, “later in the year”? Obviously, this indicates that there is an intention to take what comes out of this and move reasonably quickly with something. Therefore, why would we not be doing what we can to try to make sure that this work is informing what we would do, and that what we would do would inform what they do, so maybe we can get some sense as to the timelines?
When it talks about “later this year”, in government terms at least, that's fairly quickly, right? That would be good. Certainly that would be where the finance minister would be very helpful for us, to get some sense as to when the government is looking to move on this, and things such as that.
For example, we have an indication here of the committee reporting its findings to the House no later than June 7. Well, maybe that's too late. Maybe the government intends to move something forward before that. Therefore, we should probably be trying to make sure we're on the timeline that would allow this to be properly considered in what's going to take place, if something is going to take place.
Not only that, but it doesn't give an indication in here about reporting. It says “its findings”. It isn't indicating anything about recommendations. I would think if you're going to do a report, you want to ensure that recommendations are part of that, certainly. What's the point otherwise, right?
Those are some of my thoughts on it. The attempt of the amendment here is something that I appreciate, but there are some things in there that are of concern. More importantly, there are some things that are lacking there, so we need to firm those up a bit better.