Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today on behalf of the constituents of Surrey Central to declare our support for Bill C-5, the government's proposed legislation is to replace the Canada Cooperative Associations Act.
The proposed legislation, to be known as the Canada co-operatives act, promises to be a helpful piece of legislation. All sides of the House of Commons in the 36th Parliament should be proud to support this bill.
I have some previous experience with co-operatives in Canada. I am a former director of the second largest credit union in Canada. The successful story of that credit union is a fine example of Canadian co-operatives. It was the very first credit union in Canada to be placed for public trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Bill C-5 is a legislative proposal prompted by a request from the Canadian Cooperatives Association to the federal government to update the current legislation affecting co-operatives in Canada. The association made specific recommendations as to what it needed in the bill. Bill C-5 contains the recommendations which the industry requested.
Bill C-5 will modernize the legislation affecting co-operatives in Canada. This bill will provide the financing tools the sector needs to compete effectively. It will strengthen this vital component of the Canadian economy.
The definitions in the legislation affecting Canadian co-operatives will be broadened by Bill C-5 so that current policies, practices, values and principles in this sector of our economy are reflected in the legislation governing it.
For example, co-operatives will be allowed to access capital markets directly. Co-operatives will continue to be able to raise capital from their members. But also with the passing of Bill C-5 into law they will have access to the financial markets.
Co-operatives will be able to recruit directors from outside their membership to a maximum of 20% of the board of directors of a co-operative.
Bill C-5 also includes definitions of the duties, liabilities and responsibilities of directors. It addresses the governance of the board of directors. As a former co-operative director, I can assure the House that this section of the bill, in particular, is a very welcome measure. Under Bill C-5 the standards that apply to directors under the Canadian Business Corporations Act will now apply to co-operatives.
This bill also gives co-operatives access to the modern and flexible legislative tools such as the right to amalgamate, which is very important in this industry.
On behalf of the people I represent, I can declare that this is a rare occasion. My colleagues in the Reform Party, veterans of the previous Parliament, have assured me that it is a rare experience to find ourselves on the side of the House supporting a successful event accompanied by the lame side of the House, the government side.
Even the hon. member for Edmonton North, formerly the member for Beaver River, who is our most experienced team member admits that by working closely with Canadians and listening to the concerns of affected parties, the Liberals got it right this time just for a change.
I mention the deputy leader of the Reform Party because as a new member of Parliament representing a brand new constituency, she has taken the time to explain to me, a rookie MP from British Columbia, that she can remember very few times in the House when she could cast her vote in support of a Tory or Liberal government initiative. We rely on her sage wisdom. She has seen almost every flat footed, maniac antic of Tory and Liberal governments.
She has seen hundreds of millions of dollars go to Bombardier in Quebec. Bombardier always remembers the Tories or the Liberals at election time, of course, depending on which party is most likely to win.
She has seen Liberal and Tory cabinet ministers, MPs and party hacks brought up on all kinds of charges of bad behaviour, questionable conduct and things that extend to criminal acts and RCMP investigations. Surely, it must have been our deputy leader who coined the phrase, Liberal-Tory, same old story.
These days in question period she is trying to find out how the current Liberal government has rigged it so that 70% of the companies that get hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts from the Canadian International Development Agency are the same companies that give hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Imagine, companies that get CIDA contracts are 70 times more likely to have given money to the Liberal Party of Canada than any other company. A group of companies directed by former Liberal cabinet minister, Marc Lalonde, has donated a whopping $80,000 to the Liberals in the last two years and the payoff is $80 million in CIDA contracts. This situation is unacceptable and almost unbelievable.