Madam Speaker, I noted the request for urgent passage and support of the bill. Perhaps we could do a trade-off. If we are to support the bill, perhaps they could support our motion on hepatitis C. It is a wonderful opportunity for the government to do the right thing. Then it would have speedy passage of Bill S-9 which, by its very title, originated in the other place.
As members know, we have talked long and loud about the affront to the House of the fact that we are receiving legislation here after it has been cleared in the Senate. We are quite incensed that we who represent the public at large, we who have been democratically elected, we who stood on platforms and said “This is what we will deliver to you if you vote for us”, have to play second fiddle to the Senate which sent us a bill that it passed.
I wonder when the government will listen to the wishes of the people, to the demands made by the Reform Party that it is time we realize that anachronistic organization at the other end of the hall needs to be replaced by something more modern, which means more representative of Canadian people.
Bill S-9, as my hon. colleague mentioned, is a technical bill and largely will not affect many people. It has to do with more of the efficient workings of our financial systems than our financial industry.
I noted that the member mentioned bankers' acceptances and notes were second only to federal bonds in value and in volume. That in itself spoke volumes. While industry needs to raise funds for investment, for the creation of jobs, for new plants, new factories, and research and development, I have often wondered why the federal government has borrowed all this money and poured it down the drain—