Mr. Speaker, the expressions of the Bloc member are an absolute classic example to the House and to all Canadians that Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition fundamentally represents or thinks that it represents 25 per cent of the people resident in Canada.
I took particular note of the fact that the prairie provinces, British Columbia, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces somehow were completely apart from any concern of the so-called official opposition. I find that exceptionally unfortunate.
For the duration of this Parliament the Reform Party has been the national opposition. I will be responding to the bill in light of our concern on behalf of all Canadians no matter where they live, including in the province of Quebec.
I should like to put on the record the Reform Party understanding of the bill. It brings amendments to the Bank Act, Co-Operative Credit Associations Act, Insurance Act and Trust and Loan Companies Act dealing with first, the disclosure of information; second, the elimination of appeals in relation to certain matters; third, the disqualification of persons from becoming officeholders in an institution; fourth, the taking of control of an institution by the Superintendent of Financial Institutions; and, fifth, changes to the duties of the superintendent.
There are also amendments to the Winding-up Act respecting, first, the circumstances and procedures for winding up an institution and, second, a revised part III dealing with the restructuring of insurance companies. There are also amendments to the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation Act. It is this area that I will be addressing in the balance of my speech.
Continuing with our observations, the amendments to CDIC concern, first, the business affairs of the corporation; second, the restructuring of institutions by means of vesting of shares and the corporation becoming a receiver; third, the assessment and collection of deposit insurance premiums; and, fourth, the enforcement of the act.
As I mentioned, the amendments to the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation Act is the primary concern of the Reform Party. The bill is as a result of the government's review of the safety of financial institutions. It follows upon failures of a number of financial institutions and is the government's response to concerns regarding financial institutions. We also note that the bill is a prelude to the Bank Act review scheduled for 1997 that promises to be much wider in scope.
I have been approached in my office by a number of people with respect to the Bank Act review. There is much concern on the part of businesses with respect to the encroachment or the potential further encroachment of the chartered banks into the insurance business. I look forward to the review in 1997.
As I noted at the start of my speech, the Bloc Quebecois is being irresponsible in its position as official opposition in that it is very myopic in taking a look at the concerns of only 25 per cent of Canada's citizens, but I would be remiss if I did not make some comments about the government.
The bill we are speaking to today is important. It concerns the fundamentals of controlling money or at least the affairs surrounding money. Money as the medium of exchange whether it be in Canada or around the world must have government control. We respect that the act is of some value. However, in the context of all other legislation or non-legislation the government has been bringing forward and the way it keeps taking us as parliamentarians through a void of any meaningful legislation, the act although important to Canadians is yet another way of getting around the fact that we should be getting on with other affairs that are important to Canadians rather than simply wasting time on housekeeping issues.
I do not suggest that the act is a waste of time. I am just saying that it falls into the context of avoiding any review of UI, for example. There are all sorts of leaks to the press about what will be happening with UI and about items promised by the government over the last two years about which nothing has happened.
Speaking specifically to the bill, there is a very little difference between the thought processes of the Liberals and the Conservatives. Liberal, Tory, same old story. The same kind of thought processes would come from the either of the old line parties. The Liberals are trying to engineer results of the gain. With the act, particularly as it relates to the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, they are continuing to attempt to interfere in the natural process in the marketplace. Liberals, as was the case with the Conservatives, want to engineer the results of the gain. They want to make the rules of the game such that they can ensure what the results will be.
Basically this imposes external and extraneous pressure on an international commodity such as the trading medium of money. It brings values into the marketplace that would not be there if it were not for blatant government interference, as is shown in its proposals relative to the CDIC.
It makes me think a lot of the way that the Liberals and their predecessors, the Tories, have gone about interfering in the marketplace in the area of regional development and regional development grants. There is an absolute parallel between regional development and the way they are looking at the CDIC amendments.
In regional development we see countless Canadian dollars going into marketplaces under western economic diversification, FORD-Q, ACOA or any other program. The Canadian taxpayers' money squandered through these programs basically ends up distorting the marketplace. Why? It is because most frequently they end up supporting non-competitive companies that cannot make it on their own. There is no natural cleansing process to the marketplace. The biggest problem that creates is distortion or disadvantage for the firms that are competitive.
It is tremendously ironic that the competitive, healthy firms are paying the taxes. Their taxes are being taken in by big government, by the Liberals, and in turn are being put into firms that are less competitive, thereby creating competition for the firms that are competitive. The bottom line is that it costs taxpayers lots and lots of money.