I would like to clarify a couple of points for my friends.
I won't comment on the NDP and banks; I'll leave that for others to figure out. But I will say, Chair, that the point of this is that if we're talking about the person contributing to an election and they've received a better interest rate, and this rate is lower than the going rate, that would then have to be established as a contribution. I don't think it would be very hard to establish that sometimes that would be unintended. A person might give a better rate of interest on the loan or contribution to any given candidate and they might be.... Are we now going to have Elections Canada well enough resourced to establish that each and every loan was at a certain rate, and what it was, and if it wasn't, that the person had to figure it out? This provides clarity and some baseline and foundation so that we don't have to get into that kind of exercise.
So I'd say to my friend from the Bloc that for reasons of fairness and transparency, as I said at the beginning, we set the rate so that it's understood, so everyone is playing by the same rules. I say to my friends in the Conservative Party--and I might be contradicted by our witnesses here, and if so, I need to know this--that this isn't setting the interest rate policy of the Bank of Canada. We're not into any boundary issues here, I believe; we're simply saying that for purposes of this legislation, we establish a floor, if you will. And the reason was that witnesses came forward and were concerned about the fairness in the floor and access to money, and that we have fairness from coast to coast to coast.
So I wanted to respond, Chair, to the comments made by my friends from the Bloc and the Conservatives on this. It's not about establishing bank policy; it's about establishing clear rules. To my friend from the Bloc, I don't understand how he would be against this because somehow someone was able to get a better rate for a loan and that this would then be something they would have to declare on their election expenses. I think that would be very difficult and have unintended consequences. Some innocent people might get charged if they're not aware of this, and this is providing certainty and fairness.