Mr. Speaker, I am pleased once again to be able to speak to Bill C-41, an act to amend the Royal Canadian Mint Act and the Currency Act. I just want to get back to what we are here for, and it is not criticizing each other.
When the minister responsible for the mint first introduced the bill on May 7, I was careful to go through it with a fine toothed comb. I saw many important changes being proposed, but I also identified two items which caused me grave concern.
In the time since I have had a great number of meetings and have done a fair bit of work on the bill so that I am satisfied now that most of my concerns have been dealt with. As a result, I am pleased to say we will be supporting Bill C-41 at third reading.
Today I would like to talk about the process we have gone through to get to this point, readdress my original concern and discuss why I now believe it is important for members to support the bill.
When Bill C-41 was first introduced it contained two provisions that prevented me from immediately endorsing the bill without further study. The first of the changes contained in clause 3 would have stripped parliament of the authority to introduce new coins into circulation or to delete old coins from circulation. It proposed putting that authority into the hands of cabinet and streamlining the decision process.
I have always jealously guarded the authority of the Chamber. Members of the House are the people's representatives.
It is right that having been vested with this authority we should have an important part in the decision making process of government. Unless there is a clear and compelling reason for any power held by members of parliament to be moved elsewhere, I oppose any effort to diminish the authority of the Commons.
This is not an academic discussion. It is very likely that at some point in the near future members of parliament will be asked to consider whether they wish to replace the $5 bill with a $5 coin. It is also quite conceivable that they will have to decide if having a penny in circulation serves any useful purpose or if it should be retired. As it stands now, if the government wishes to take an existing coin out of circulation, or bring in a new coin, it must introduce legislation for consideration by parliament.
As with all bills such as the one before us today, there must be a full public debate with committee hearings and ultimately a public vote before such a change can take place. This bill proposes turning this decision over to cabinet. It would require the minister to give 15 sitting days notice before cabinet makes the decision. However, it would have been powerless to stop any decision the public found undesirable and that is what I oppose. Government works best when it bases its decisions under the full scrutiny of the public eye. It is not pretty at times, but it works.
For example, take the decision to replace the $1 bill with the $1 coin back in 1987. I remember that there was great discussion over the efficacy of having the loonie. On one side of the discussion we had the vending machine lobby and the bus companies which promoted the convenience of having a $1 coin. On the other side was a diverse group of people who were concerned about replacing the dollar for reasons that ranged from nostalgia to concern that pant pockets would have to be reinforced because coins were too heavy. Regardless of what our individual feelings were on that issue, it was right for us to have that debate in the House, the most public of forums. It is right that we should have a debate here if there are to be similar changes to Canada's currency in the future. Understandably, the fact that Bill C-41 would take this decision away from parliament troubles me a lot.
I was fortunate enough to have a briefing on the bill in June by officials from the Royal Canadian Mint, including the master of the mint, Danielle Wetherup. When I asked Mrs. Wetherup why the government would consider removing from members of parliament the power to approve a change in the country's coinage she was able to give me some history behind this portion of the bill.
Apparently, when parliament was dealing with what was then Bill C-82, the act to replace the $2 note with a $2 coin, the master of the mint received some negative feedback from members of parliament on the process involved in approving the new coin. At that time it was in late June. The days were very hot. The government had a very busy agenda. The committee room where the government operations committee was reviewing the bill was not air conditioned.
In the heat of the moment, if members will pardon the pun, and faced with a large number of bills to approve in the final days before the House recessed for the summer, some members of parliament observed that Bill C-82 was not the most important piece of legislation before them. They wondered out loud if there was not an easier way to deal with what seemed to them to be a straightforward change.
Understandably, mint officials made a note of this. When it came time to update the Royal Canadian Mint Act, as is done every 20 years or so, they decided to propose changes to simplify the approval process for changes in coinage in response to suggestions by members of parliament at that time. The result was clause 3, as it appeared in the original printing of Bill C-41. However, members will note that clause 3 has changed.
For reasons that I have already explained, it was unacceptable to me that the decision to change Canada's coinage should have been taken from parliamentarians. Therefore, on behalf of my party I drafted a amendment to leave that decision where it belonged, in the hands of the peoples' representatives.
I shared my idea with Mrs. Wetherup, the master of the mint, on two occasions, during our first real briefing with members of parliament and during the hearings of the natural resources and government operations committee into Bill C-41. Throughout the committee meeting she rightly stated that the final decision as to whether the government would support the amendment rested with the minister. She indicated during our first meeting that since the original idea for clause 3 had come from members of parliament the mint would not oppose leaving the decision making process the way it was if, on reflection, members of parliament believed it should remain that way.
I also spoke to the minister's office and to the critics from other parties about my amendment. I argued the importance of my amendment and said that members of parliament must continue to have an important role in the government decision making process. Apparently they must have found my arguments to be persuasive. When I presented my amendment in committee last Tuesday, it received the unanimous support of the members of parliament present. I acknowledge and thank all members of the committee and the minister for their considered, non-partisan support of my amendment.
Clause 7 is another provision of Bill C-41 that concerned me. It proposes increasing the borrowing authority of the mint from its present $50 million to $75 million. This proposed change troubled me because of a new venture the mint is undertaking in building a new facility in Winnipeg to manufacture coin blanks.
Clause 7 worried me principally because I thought the mint would use this newly acquired borrowing power to finance this poorly thought out venture and put a successful Canadian company out of business. I did not realize at that time that the mint financed this $30 million venture in March and that the building which will house the coin plating facility is nearly completed. It is clear at this point that Bill C-41 has no bearing on the mint's decision to build this new facility. Therefore, I must separate my opposition to this scheme from my position on the bill and evaluate clause 7 on its own merits.
Do not mistake my support of this bill as an endorsement of the mint's decision to get into the manufacturing of coin blanks. I oppose that decision for two reasons. First, the facility will put the Royal Canadian Mint into direct competition with a successful Canadian supplier of coin blanks, Westaim of Alberta. Westaim has supplied the mint with coin blanks for 35 years. It employs 110 people at its plant in Fort Saskatchewan and the entry of the mint into this industry will jeopardize this Westaim division and its 110 employees.
Second, this is a risky venture for the mint to undertake. Because it has borrowed the money on taxpayers' credit, it is also risky for Canadians. There is currently a 30% to 40% oversupply in the world's coin blanks market. If the entry of the mint into this market does not drive Westaim out of business and put its 110 employees on the unemployment line, it could go spectacularly down in flames and take millions of taxpayers' dollars along with it. Industry experts agree that the market for coin blanks will experience a slight blip in demand as the new European currency starts, but it will then continue its steady decline as electronic transactions become more popular and the need for coinage and paper money decreases.
As if poor markets were not enough, the costs of getting the mint into the coin plating business are enormous. The $30 million dollars borrowed by the mint in March is just to build the Winnipeg plant. Start-up costs are substantial for a new competitor in a mature to declining market. The Royal Canadian Mint will have to compete against established, experienced, well-entrenched competitors which have had decades to build their expertise and economies of scale.
For example, consider employee costs. The process of manufacturing coin blanks requires highly skilled workers. There are only two ways to obtain employees such as this. The first way is to spend an extraordinary amount of time and money to train these people. The other option is to hire them away from competitors by offering them more money. Either way, employee costs are going to be higher than those of competitors, and in a commoditized, price sensitive industry this is bad news.
Not only will the mint have to contend with its high cost structure, but like any brand new business it will make many mistakes.
Thus, I fear for the Royal Canadian Mint, I fear for the employees of Westaim and I fear for the taxpayers who are, so far, on the hook for $30 million.
However, I realize now after considerable debate and consultation on Bill C-41 that these are two separate fights. Although I will continue to search for a resolution to the mint's entry into the coin blanks industry, I can happily say that we have won the fight on Bill C-41. Now that the committee has fixed the problem with the bill, it has removed the final obstacles to my party's support.
In closing, I would like to again thank the members of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources and Government Operations as well as the minister for helping to get my amendment approved.
I would like to thank Danielle Wetherup and the other officials of the mint who were kind enough to meet with me on a number of occasions, both privately and publicly, to review this bill and to discuss my concerns in detail.
Although, as I have mentioned, I do not agree with everything the mint is doing, I do agree with the changes to the Royal Canadian Mint Act and Currency Act as proposed in this bill.
I have no hesitation in supporting this bill and I would urge other members to do the same.