Mr. Speaker, I assure the hon. member that I will be monitoring the promises-if we can call them that-of the banking industry to see whether they are actually following through on them. I am not going to cross my fingers because I have heard this rhetoric from the banking industry for a number of years. It is always the small businessmen. When the sun is shining the banks will hand them an umbrella but when it starts to rain they are the first ones to take it away.
The hon. member knows very well that the big six do in fact control virtually all the business in the country. The hon. member also knows that the big six have the resources to get involved in a little bit of risk financing. I am sure they consider small businesses as high risk, otherwise they would not treat them as they do.
The hon. member also knows that the smaller banks do not have the kind of capital to get involved in the more risky loan portfolios like small business. That is why all the small businesses are pretty much obliged to deal with the big banking institutions, the big six. They really do not have too many choices.
The government should tell the banking industry: "Now listen. You folks are talking about rearranging your priorities when it comes to small business, rearranging the conditions under which you lend. You are doing these studies and you are going to come up with some good programs. You have admitted it has to be done, now what are you going to do about it? Are you really going to do something? Because if you do not we as a government are going to impose a few restrictions on you. You will not have such a monopoly in dealing with business in this country".
Clearly the government is going to have to hold some sort of a hammer over these guys in the banking industry. If not, they are simply not going to do anything no matter how much the government talks to them, no matter how many times their CEOs meet and say that yes, they have to be a little more gentle toward the small business interests. They are simply not going to change their practices they have followed since day one until the government holds a hammer over their heads to change their lending practices.