Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his remarks.
In a way, he shares my objective. He said that the Standing Committee on Industry has made a lot of representations to the banks over the past few years to make them more aware of the need for loans. We can see, however, that this voluntary action is not enough.
I do not know how the Standing Committee on Industry failed to come up with amendments. I believe the Bloc Quebecois presented a dissenting report with amendments. The industry committee was aware of the situation of bank loans to small and medium size businesses, but the bill does not provide the necessary tools.
The member said legislation on the Business Development Bank of Canada was rewritten. It is true, changes were made. However, why was the same approach not taken with all the banking institutions? Caisses populaires and banking institutions work with the existing program, but the government must lead the way and define in the legislation the conditions that would provide the right tools for businesses at the start of the 21st century. There is nothing like this in the legislation.
There is also the issue of the new export market, the arrival of new technologies, the changes to all the transportation networks in North America. These conditions totally change the way business is conducted in Quebec, Canada, the U.S., North America and the world.
Do we have up-to-date tools? Will they serve our businesses, the people who come to our riding offices, business people in contact with banking institutions. Will they enable these caisses populaires and other financial institutions to provide loans to these individuals and help them get started?
I gave the example of working capital, of lending money to permit exports. Work needs to be done in this area. There is nothing original in the legislation. Business people in the regions want something new.
More use should be made of the expertise of those already in business, those who have had a business running for 10, 12 or 15 years and who know what it takes to make it work. What is needed is some incentive. Financial institutions are not displaying a lack of goodwill. We simply cannot require them to do things that are not included in the act.
Financial institutions must comply with the existing legislation, but Quebeckers and Canadians are concerned about job creation.
If we took a real close look at this legislation, we would see whether or not it meets the job creation requirement that is in effect in Canada. Does the bill promote job creation? I am not just talking about jobs that are automatically created in a thriving economy, but also about hiring people who may not have been so lucky and about finding ways of using everyone's potential.
Fewer and fewer people are prepared to say that the economy is doing well just because the gross domestic product is good. What Canadians really want is a society that allows the largest number of people to realize their full potential. The bill is not the perfect tool to this end, but it is a useful one, even though it is not as innovative as we had hoped.
It simply extends the application of the act for one year, and it adds $1 billion to the fund, so that, technically, the money will be there to guarantee the loans. The government should have a vision that goes beyond 1999. It should ask itself what instrument should be put in place to support our businesses all the way to the year 2005 or 2010. Should there not be some gentle pressure on our financial institutions to ensure that their loans have a positive impact on job creation? The government still has a lot of work to do in this respect.