Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the hon. member a question. I could have asked him off the record but then the people of Canada would not have benefited from his answer. The member was speaking about the way this legislation has its origin in the WTO and in the international financial services agreement which was signed by this government a day before the Royal Bank and the Bank of Montreal announced their intention to merge or issue their wedding bands or however one wants to describe this.
That was no coincidence. What struck me at the time was the false outrage of the Minister of Finance who claimed to be totally shocked and surprised that the banks might be considering this when in fact the day before the government had signed an agreement which in some ways precipitated the banks' considering the advisability of merging, something we are against but which nevertheless we recognize was effected by the signing of this financial services agreement.
Would the member care to comment more on that sequence which is something I do not think the Canadian public was fully aware of then or is fully aware if now? There is the way the government prejudiced the outcome of the entire organization of our banking industry by signing this agreement with no debate in the House of Commons beforehand, and still no debate until today. Now it expects us to pass something as significant as this after about two hours of debate. Clearly this is not something we are prepared to co-operate in. We feel this kind of thing should receive more debate and I am sure the member would want to help that happen by commenting on what I have just said.