Mr. Speaker, I have four petitions to present today. Three of them bear a total of 259 signatures and are identical in form and content.
The petitioners draw our attention to the MacKay Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector which recommends that banks be allowed to retail casualty and property insurance from their branches. The petitioners state that these recommendations would have a very negative impact on Canada's independent insurance brokers and would result in thousands of lost jobs. Therefore they call upon parliament to totally reject the recommendations of the MacKay task force report pertaining to the entry of banks into the casualty and property insurance markets. They strongly urge parliamentarians to not give in to the pressure of the banks on this matter.