Evidence of meeting #84 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was risks.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Can you table with this committee the actual number of loans that are conventional compared to green loans, the span of how many years that's across, and the amounts?
1:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Vancity
It's a question of whether I can do that today or if we can follow up. I don't have that data at my fingertips.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Perhaps you could table that as soon as possible for the committee.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
You're pretty much past your time. Thank you very much, Mr. Hallan.
Now we're going to our last questioner. We have a guest here. Welcome, Mr. Turnbull, to our committee. You seem very excited about this study.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Thanks, Chair, and thanks to Ms. Bergeron for being here. It's great to see you. I have always admired the work Vancity does as a credit union, but also as a community investment bank.
Obviously we know credit unions play a huge part and that their community lending model and the way they do things is quite different from how some of our large financial institutions do them. That has shone through in your remarks today. I want to acknowledge you for that.
I wanted to get back to a comment you made in your opening remarks about how we can't rely on the same modes of capital allocation. I know that Vancity, both in social impact investment but also in green or climate finance, has been doing remarkable work, and is innovating. I think you're trying to get to a “yes” on every deal that comes before you where you see a positive impact on society and the planet.
What are you doing to really innovate within your lending that is making a difference?
1:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Vancity
Thank you.
There are several things that we continue to improve upon, because certainly we're constantly learning.
The first is actually creating more feedback mechanisms to enable us to hear from members as to what is working and what is not. That's typically how we have innovated in the past.
We continue to put pilot programs out and look to collaborate. How can we work with provincial governments, municipal governments, other groups and also a small business owner to think about how there are many different pockets of programs and money? How can those come together to make us think differently about the lending that we do? That's also about innovating. Many would not call it innovation, but by thinking differently, which is innovation, around risk and what that looks like and what the time frames are, we can, perhaps, price differently if that's what the risk indicators demonstrate.
We are also trying as much as we can to bring in different voices. Traditionally, there have been more male voices, for example, in capital allocation, broadly. We're trying to ensure that we look across our organization, from a gender perspective, for more broad diversity, and that we have that at all levels of the organization.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Thanks very much for that. It's great to hear about the way you're innovating or thinking differently.
In terms of your involvement in the sustainable finance action council, I know Vancity sits on that and is actively engaged. What is your assessment of the contributions that the taxonomy on green and transition investment will make to our financial system? Can you speak to the value of that taxonomy in terms of lending credibility to our system here in Canada?
1:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Vancity
We think it is important to have common language to, again, have standardization and for consumers to have trust in what we are going to call or not call green. I believe there was previous discussion on greenwashing. On the one hand, consumers are very aware, and on the other hand, it's very difficult for them to wade through the noise, so we think there's value in standardization.
We also think that many of the next steps with respect to taxonomy are important. I know that governance is one of the many next steps to come.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
That's great. Thank you. I have one last question.
In terms of mandatory climate-related disclosures, I know there's considerable movement towards taking a holistic approach or an all-of-economy approach to that and having mandatory disclosures. Do you feel that's really needed? For a financial institution, I'm certain that decision-useful data must be hard to get in an economy in which there's no mandatory disclosure for climate-related risk, so are you an advocate for mandatory disclosures?
1:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Vancity
We believe that disclosure is important and that transparency is important. We also know that in order to get there, to do that throughout, you have to start even with small business owners, who are going to need resources and time to get there.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
We thank you, Ms. Bergeron.
Thank you, Mr. Turnbull.
The bells are ringing for a vote, members.
Ms. Bergeron, we really want to thank you for bearing with us, for giving us the flexibility, for staying with us past the hour and giving us the full hour of your time. Thank you for your testimony. That will help inform this study. On behalf of all the members of the finance committee, I will say that we really appreciate it. Thank you.