The Bloc? That would be 5.5.
What happened is that financial institutions did a cleanup. One of them, which I will not name, decided that it would get rid of all its customers' accounts with a rating of 6, 7, 8, 9 and even 5. This means that if you are a customer and have a hard time making ends meet, when the time comes to renew your personal loan or whatever, the bank informs you that it will not renew your loan. It cleans up its financial portfolio.
All of sudden, the customer is faced with the bank's refusal to renew the financing. Think about the person who goes looking for alternative financing. In the old days, Household Finance, not to mention it, was there just in case. Even that institution has tightened up its lending conditions, now.
The situation regarding our country's financial institutions was not planned properly. Many changes occur and people are very concerned. If we look at what is going on in Quebec, or in the rest of the country, we can see that people are worried about what will happen to services.
I see my Bloc Quebecois colleague nodding. People in Quebec are very concerned about what is going on. My colleague, the member for Sherbrooke, explained it very well. Right before an election, the Government of Quebec introduced a legislative amendment allowing people to be more closely involved, by filing complaints about financial institutions in Quebec, including the caisses populaires.
What power does this body have? To receive complaints, the way the ombudsman does? It has no legislative authority, just political.
Bill C-67 represents an obligation, with international agreements that must be observed. I cannot examine the bill from a fiscal point of view today. I am sure members would be able to follow me, but I do not really know myself what I would say. It is a very complex issue.
My criticism is that this bill should have been discussed rapidly after the agreement between all the WTO countries with a view to standardizing the international financial system. That is when it should have been done. This was a political issue. I use the word political, rather than economic or financial, advisedly. The political issue was bank mergers.
Apples and oranges were compared, oil was thrown on the fire, and things were confused generally with respect to the banking issues. It is most unfortunate.
In future, I hope that the necessary time will be taken to ensure that there is a financial safety net for Quebeckers and all Canadians. They will need one.