Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary has criticized my Bloc Quebecois colleague for having spoken only three minutes on our three very technical amendments tabled, as were his, at the last minute this morning. I will attempt during the next ten minutes to provide further clarification to the parliamentary secretary so that he may better understand our three amendments.
Bill C-15 before the House today is a sort of omnibus bill, a collection of scattered measures, the sole objective of which is to tighten control and regulation of the financial services field in Canada. Generally speaking, the bill amends a number of Acts governing financial services and repeals the Investment Companies Act.
We are not opposed to the principle behind the bill but to some of the measures proposed, because they are an outright intrusion in provincial areas of jurisdiction. In order to eliminate this intrusion, the Bloc Quebecois is proposing three amendments to the bill.
The proposed amendments have to do with the system for payment clearing and settlement. Their purpose is to bar the federal government from this provincial area of jurisdiction. The first amendment proposes:
That Bill C-15, in the Schedule, be amended by replacing line 26, on page 124, with the following: "ment of foreign ex-".
This amendment thus removes the words "securities transactions" from the original clause, so that the federal government's jurisdiction does not extend into this provincial area of responsibility.
The second amendment also concerns the schedule to Bill C-15 and proposes adding after line 30, on page 127, the following:
"(2.1) A directive may not be issued under this section in respect of a participating institution that is a member of a system for the clearing and settlement of securities transactions by clearing houses."
The purpose of this technical amendment is to remove from the application of federal directives institutions participating in clearing houses for securities transactions. The first amendment, in fact, takes away the federal government's power to create a clearing
house and the second amendment takes away its power to regulate provincial clearing houses.
The third amendment amends Bill C-15, in the Schedule, by adding, after line 2, on page 136, a part III which sets out the fields of application of a system for the clearing and settlement of securities transactions and in which regulatory power is also limited. This amendment limits the power of the federal government to regulate payment settlement activities.
Moreover, the federal government can take action only for purposes related to systemic risk management, and for no other reason. So, the objective of the last amendment is to control more strictly the clearing and settlement systems for securities transactions.
Why did we propose these three amendments? Because Bill C-15 brings about changes that are totally unacceptable to the provinces, and, from our point of view, to Quebec.
The most important of those changes would widen the Bank of Canada payment mechanisms to include securities. That action would duplicate the clearing mechanisms already regulated by the Commission des valeurs mobilières du Québec and would open the door to federal interference in securities regulation, which is under provincial jurisdiction. So, Mr. Speaker, we oppose it vigorously.
With Bill C-15, the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation could base its participation premiums on the risk posed by a financial institution, including Quebec chartered institutions which are already regulated by the Régie de l'assurance-dépôts du Québec, which uses the value of the deposits in the institution to assess its premiums.
There would therefore be two standards for evaluation, and the one linked to risk might place Quebec institutions at a disadvantage because they are relatively small-larger institutions often being considered less risky-and because Quebec has its own deposit insurance, premiums for which are not determined by risk.
A third major change is that the Superintendent of Financial Institutions would have increased powers, enabling him to wind up Quebec-chartered institutions. We can just imagine all the conflicts between the various provincial and federal bodies that will ensue.
Bill C-15 modifies nine important laws that are currently in effect: those governing financial institutions (banks, trust and loan companies, insurance companies and associations of credit unions), those governing winding-up and restructuring, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Act, the Canadian Payments Association Act. As well it does away completely with the Investment Companies Act.
Quebec is already involved in the clearing system via the Commission québécoise des valeurs mobilières and the Inspecteur général des institutions financières. Schedule I of Bill C-15 creates new overlaps, by placing Quebec's financial institutions wholly under the directives and orders of the Bank of Canada.
Under the pretext of controlling systemic risk, Bill C-15 is allowing Ottawa to meddle in this area. The governor of the Bank of Canada reserves the right to issue directives, not just to clearing houses, but also to participating financial institutions, regardless of their charters.
Many essentially Quebec institutions, such as la Fiducie Desjardins or the brokerage firm of Lévesque, Beaubien, Geoffrion, may be directly affected by the Bank of Canada's orders and directives.
With Bill C-15, the federal government is demonstrating more of a desire to grasp hold of new powers than any wish to ensure the mobility of financial institutions and the safety of investors.
Once again, with this bill, Ottawa is letting its centralizing dynamic show through. Bill C-15 constitutes an unacceptable interference in the securities field, something that has even been denounced by Daniel Johnson Jr. in February 1994, as my Bloc colleague has already pointed out this morning.
These new prerogatives of the governor of the Bank of Canada are therefore in complete contradiction to another of Quebec's traditional demands. Even above and beyond the areas of provincial jurisdiction, Quebec's financial institutions and its investors will be the victims of the double supervision Ottawa plans to impose. The result of this will be additional costs, administrative inefficiency and a system that lacks cohesion.
To conclude, in order to minimize all of these risks in a system that is already too unwieldy and over regulated, in these times when balancing budgets requires less regulation and fewer resources to apply it, when all taxpayers need a chance to catch their financial breaths a bit, and when all of Canada's and Quebec's financial institutions, and business in general, need more flexibility, I would invite the members of this House, the Parliamentary Secretary included, to show good faith and to support the three amendments tabled by the Bloc Quebecois this morning.