Mr. Speaker, I share the zeal with which the hon. member for Broadview-Greenwood campaigns on behalf of small businesses. I know exactly what he is talking about. I have spent my entire life in small business and I know the problems small businesses have had with banks. Quite often the small business people I talk to feel like third class citizens when they go to these big banks to try to get some financial help.
I agree that it must be demanded of the banks that they get serious about dealing with small business in a substantial manner. As far as I am concerned, one per cent is a bit low. I would like to see it higher.
I believe there is an inherent and traditional conflict of interest when it comes to the relationships that governments, whether they be Tories, Liberals, or whatever, have had with the banks over the last several years. The major contributors to the federal parties, both the Tories and the Liberals, have been these very powerful banking institutions themselves. The banks are the most powerful financial institutions, but they are also probably the most influential institutions as far as political direction.
I hope this government has the guts to stand up to the banks and hold a hammer to their heads and say the way they have done things in the past with the Liberal Party and with the Tory Party does not go any more and that the government wants to see them make a profound effort toward helping small business to thrive and prosper in this country. Until a government is prepared to do that, mean it and stick to it, nothing is going to change in the attitude of banks toward small business. That is the key to all this.
We can talk all day long about legislation, and we are going to put this in and we are going to make this amendment, but the government has to be prepared to back it up. I hope this is the government that does it.