Also, the socio-economics studies chair at UQAM has revealed, along with banking specialist professor Bernard Élie in his latest book, available from the Presses de l'Université de Montréal for the modest sum of $28, that the banks are getting rich off people's savings.
Every day in Canada, 2.5 million transaction slips are churned out by automatic tellers, and the banks get 50 cents for each transaction. Imagine, a person cannot even take money out of his own account, his own independent income, without the banks charging for the transaction.
It cannot be repeated enough, we parliamentarians must tell the financial institutions, the chartered banks, that they have to get involved in disadvantaged communities, that they have to do so because they can afford to, and because they receive a lot from the community by virtue of their protected situation, so it is the least they can do.
To give some examples, once again in the United States, the Community Reinvestment Act has been in force since 1977 and so we can see what the effects of such an arrangement can be. I do not want to talk about coercion here, we do not see a bill of this kind as compulsion. It is a bill that will clarify the framework within which the banks can act in order to get involved in their community.
As you know, in recent years the Hispano-American community and the Afro-American community have seen their access to credit improve by 30%. That is, of course, understandable. When a bank is in a predominantly black community, efforts will be expended to ensure that this community has access to personal loans and to mortgage money. This is possible because there is an evaluation of banking business. Bank involvement is assessed. The monitoring agency makes reports and the consumers and American consumer groups follow those reports.
The following are a few examples. In some American states, there are special accounts just for people who write a limited number of cheques. Some states have said that, in the spirit of the Community Investment Act, a certain number of free cheques will be allowed. The banking institution will process a certain number of cheques without a service charge.
I will quote an example from New York State. As the member for Quebec, who has always been sensitive to these issues, knows, some communities passed rules making it impossible to freeze a client's account for more than two banking days. This is something important which comes from the Community Reinvestment Act.
More important yet, as I was saying earlier, in an area like Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, 86% of the population lives in rental accommodation. If we do not help them a bit, and God knows banks are not easy to deal with in that respect, they will never own a home.
Let me give you another example. In a number of American states, banks absorb part of the mortgage-related costs such as the appraisal, title search and credit rating costs.
You will no doubt agree with me, Madam Speaker, that all this is very reasonable. There is nothing outlandish about this. There is nothing in the examples I just gave that is not consistent with what banks are all about.
Is there anybody in this House who believes that, if we leave the banks to their own devices, they will voluntarily invest in disadvantaged communities? Certainly not. As law-makers, we must send them a very clear message and tell them exactly what we expect of them, regardless of our political affiliation. Whether we belong to the government, the NDP—of course, much to its credit, the NDP has a long history of social action—the Reform Party or the Conservative Party, we must tell banks now that we will no longer tolerate their being absent from large communities.
I recently gave a press conference with the bishop of Rimouski. He is highly respected in his community; he received a classical education and he is an extremely sensitive man. He told me that, just as in Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, banks have deserted his community. I have to say it, I want this to be very clear, it is the main thrust of the bill before us today.
For the rest, I can only hope. This bill is very close to my heart. I want to get this thing going because I know that several other parliamentarians are sensitive to this problem. I want to use my colleague from Brome—Missisquoi as an example, because he has also introduced a bill to better control bank fees, to ensure that banks will have to appear before a committee to explain any fee increases and also to establish the appropriate regulations. I raise that point because there are obviously, in every political party, members who could work on this in a non-partisan caucus.
Imagine for a minute how strong we would be in this House if we were to decide to review the Bank Act and address the issue of the operations of the banks and our expectations in this area in a non-partisan way. We would work as parliamentarians in a non-partisan caucus, where all members who are concerned about this issue would represent their parties and give their best for greater social justice.
I see that my time is running out. I just want to stress that this is a very important bill for me and I am very proud of it. I am also extremely moved by all the support my caucus colleagues gave me. As far as I am concerned, this battle will be over only when this bill is passed.