Thank you.
Listening to lengthy interventions about the importance of not repeating arguments or about trying to get straight to a vote is interesting.
This is a bill about competitiveness in banking. We have, in Canada, a nice, cozy inside club of six large banks with 95% of the business, and we are delaying with the help of the NDP. The NDP moved the motion to delay this bill in this place instead of reporting it back to the House of Commons where we could quickly—in the last stages, while we still have a chance in this Parliament before the government finally runs its course—get this thing approved.
I would just as soon go straight to a carbon tax election and have no more business approved in the House, but if this Parliament is still going to continue to operate, getting this bill passed would actually be a positive step forward in helping Canadians save—what is believed by the mover and what we believe to be—$400 a year.
The lack of competition in financial services is a real affordability problem in this country. We have a concrete measure that can be reported back to the House next week and that can take it one step closer to becoming law. I'm disappointed that the NDP members seem so uninterested in expediting this bill, which will actually do something about the power of the existing financial institutions and about the lack of competition they have there.
I'm disappointed. I think it's important that this bill gets reported back.
To those who asked why we are making a big deal about something that just happened to be moved in the last dying seconds of this meeting and who said that this wasn't done with malice or anything like that, we have the ability to communicate with each other. If the Liberals had a concern about this bill and were keen to ensure that it would be studied at committee, given the discussion we had about the business of this committee, and if there was consensus on a work plan, which it certainly seemed that there was, then the parliamentary secretary could have picked up the phone, talked to the Conservative vice-chair and shadow minister for finance, raised the concern, discussed a work plan and achieved consensus, but that didn't happen.
We had the surprise, the ambush, in the final seconds of this committee, wherein the parliamentary secretary—not even well enough prepared for this meeting to come with a proper headset—sprung a delay that had not been discussed. I am disappointed, and I'm not prepared to go without these points being made and without argument in favour of this bill as well. This is a good bill. This is a bill that should be reported back to the House and that should be given its best chance to expeditiously pass in this Parliament.