Mr. Speaker, we would have been very surprised had the minister not referred to the Federal Office of Regional Development. He cannot help it. I think that the hon. member will agree with me that members on both sides of this House will be under enormous pressure to review the tax system and that saying banks must also face the pressure of international competition will not help generate support. Although this is true, they should not be judged on that basis. The fact remains that, during the last two recessions, two industrial sectors made what can certainly appear as inordinate profits.
The first sector is the drug industry, to which I will get back later. The second sector is the banking industry. It is no sin to make profits, as many members would agree. In this day and age, however, profitable businesses must act like good corporate citizens, which is not so obvious. The hon. member referred to various local partnerships like the economic development corporations that have managed the transition to partnership. I am tempted to remind the hon. member that we would be hard-pressed to find examples of banks that get involved in their communities to a really meaningful extent.
Humanitarian involvement is still marginal. The purpose of my speech and of the bill that I may be bold enough to table some day is to ensure that banks, like other stakeholders such as the local economic development corporations the hon. member likes so much, are motivated to become partners in economic development.