Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise. Like others who have risen in the House today I want to say how good it is to be back. It is almost like we never left.
We are debating today the government's Bill C-38, the financial sector reform bill. One would think there is probably no greater institutions in need of reform than those in the financial sector. This is in some part a response to the great outcry of the Canadian people a couple of years ago when there was some discussion of bank mergers. We know where the Canadian people stood on that.
I want to make a few points. Many of the points with regard to my party's position on this issue have been made by our excellent finance critic, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle. We bring a balanced review to this piece of legislation. He indicated, and we support him in that, that we will be opposing it at this point because while there are some good things in the legislation, there are many other areas that need reform and changes.
I think it is appropriate and I am glad to rise to speak to this piece of legislation. This summer, when I was home meeting with constituents and dealing with matters in the constituency, I received a phone call late one night from a local manager of the Bank of Nova Scotia, calling to give me a heads up to advise me that the next day they would be announcing closure of one of the small local branches that services a number of people. Luckily, he indicated to me, there would be no job losses. Some of those jobs would be moved to another branch.
It goes to the heart of some of the things we are talking about and some of our concerns. We have a huge monopoly in the banking sector of this country. Many of the rural and smaller communities are suffering when banks withdraw. I will touch on that briefly in a few minutes.
It is interesting that we have some differences of opinion. Clearly the spokesman for the Conservative Party could not understand why the NDP might oppose some aspects of the legislation. It says something that both the spokesperson for the Conservative Party and I think the Canadian Alliance were in tandem on a couple of aspects of the bill.
Let me start by saying we will bring a balanced approach to this piece of legislation. I do not think it behoves anybody to simply be critical of the government for the sake of being critical. We in this party like to give constructive criticism and bring the concerns of the Canadian people to the fore. There are some good things in this piece of legislation.
First, as has been mentioned, there is some help for credit unions. That help will come by allowing the creation of the single national service entity to support credit union membership. We of course would agree with this and I personally would agree with it.
The credit union movement in the country has always been strong. It is one that I would argue found its birth in Cape Breton. Reverend Moses Coady and Father Jimmy Tompkins began working with local fishermen in my part of the country a long time ago, helping farmers and fishermen organize so that they would have control of their own assets. They began building the local credit union and co-op movement out of Cape Breton. Out of that and out of the province of Quebec came the two strong legs of the credit union movement. We would support that.
The increase in power and organizational flexibility of credit unions in the long run will help them be more significant players in the banking industry. That is vitally important. For a long time credit unions have not been on equal footing with the banks nor have the same ability to compete with them.
When I was a young lawyer and first engaging in the practice of law, I wanted to set up my trust account at the credit union and found out that under provincial legislation in Nova Scotia it could not be done. I had to go to one of the chartered banks. That is being rectified. This bill goes some way toward recognizing the importance of credit unions.
Likewise, one of the positive aspects of the bill is the creation of the financial services ombudsman. This is not a new idea. As has been pointed out by the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, this was an NDP initiative 10 years ago. A private member's bill introduced by a member of this party sought to establish that very thing only with real teeth so that consumers who felt that they were in some way being disenfranchised or unfairly treated by the banks had somewhere to go. We would support that. It is something that this party proposed more than 10 years ago. I am glad to see the government is finally catching up with some of the innovative ideas from this party.
The Conservatives wonder why we do not support the bill. There are some areas that require closer scrutiny. One of those, and it was mentioned by the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, has to do with bank taxation.
The member from the Canadian Alliance was sympathetic to the banks. He said that they do not get the same breaks that many of the other corporations get. I think he mentioned Shell Canada and some other great big oil companies.
The banks, because of the historical position they hold, have a privileged position in this society. They have been protected. They have been nurtured and supported for over 130 years as major institutions. To suggest that when they report such record profits we should be sympathetic and they should not pay more taxes is not on the radar screen with most Canadians.
Indeed, I think the banks provide the bulk of credit to Canadians. They manufacture the money in our economy and they reap huge profits. It only seems sensible to me that when we assess how we tax those profits, the taxes should be levied on their profits before dividend distribution because those are huge profits made by the banks.
That is one area where we have concerns and we do not think the legislation goes far enough.
Another area that causes me some concern is in terms of bank closures. I will refer to the local bank in my community.
At the current time for the rural banks where there are no other deposit taking institutions within a 10 kilometre radius of the bank being closed, six months notice will be required. The legislation sets down requirements for when the banks have to give notice that they are closing their local branch.
I represent an area where there is a large component of senior citizens. I represent an area that has a large rural community where there may be one bank in the entire area. Again we are talking about monopolies.
I had an interesting experience this summer when I went to get gas. This is a bit of a side note. I went to the local corner store that for 80 years has provided petrol to the residents of Margaree Harbour. When I went to get gas I was told that the big companies would not sell gas to the corner store any more because it did not have enough volume. This is happening in rural communities all across the country. Now people have to drive five, six or ten miles to the nearest large conglomerate because those companies have a monopoly.
The same thing is happening with banks in many of the rural communities. I am thinking of Ingonish in my riding. I am thinking of the town of Baddeck. I am thinking of other smaller communities with one branch where people do their banking face to face. There ought to be some requirement that the banks maintain those outlets unless they can show for some reason that it is not profitable, that they are losing business.
Sometimes this works to the advantage of the local credit union. What has happened in some of the communities in my riding is that when the bank withdraws, the credit union goes in and sets up and people then have access to community capital.
There are many other aspects I would like to talk about. My colleague from Vancouver East talked a little bit about the community investment and reinvestment fund. That is the kind of direction in which we should be going.
I hope we can bring a balanced discussion to this legislation. I hope that some of the important recommendations the NDP has brought forward will be considered in committee and we can improve the bill. There are some aspects that are good, and I commend the government for that, but as is our job in the opposition, we like to provide what I think are important, critical, constructive suggestions on how to make the bill better.