Mr. Speaker, I will only speak for about five minutes in order to allow my colleague from the Bloc to speak on this issue as well.
I just want to say to the hon. member that it is quite ironic that those members wish to have this bill passed, and fairly quickly I would assume. It is no coincidence that RBC Dominion Securities—and correct me if I am wrong but they are the same ones who had trouble with some sort of fraud situation that happened a while ago—will be one of the customers buying a $25,000 table at the Alliance dinner to meet with Mr. Day.
I find it quite ironic that the CBA, the Canadian Bankers Association, on which the Royal Bank is a member, wants very quick passage of this bill. One just has to tie the links together; $25,000 for a table indicates quick passage of a bill. It is quite obvious from where the Alliance is speaking, and it is not in terms of the grassroots community.
I have two letters in front of me. One letter is from a person in Fredericton, New Brunswick and the other is from a person in River John, Nova Scotia. Both of these individuals are small business people who are very concerned about the closure of their banks in their communities. This is what happens when one has a central based government that thinks from Windsor to Quebec City and ignores the rural parts of the country.
Throughout, people have been very concerned and very passionate about their banks and, in most cases, myself included, have been very proud of our banking history, but lately the banks have forgotten what their purpose is in terms of service to the community and service to rural parts of Canada.
No one will ever deny that banks are very generous when it comes to donations to various arts, sports and culture, and they should be congratulated for that, but what small communities require is a banking presence in their communities.
Many seniors and people with disabilities are finding it very difficult to access banking services. Some people do not have the technology or the finances to afford computer services in their homes. The majority of Canadians still do not have computers in their homes. Many people are very distrustful of the ATM services. In some cases the ATM services are restricted in their ability to provide services to the majority of people.
As a party we are also very concerned about the powers this bill would give one individual in parliament or, as in this particular case, in cabinet. As I mentioned before in questions and comments, what happens is that the DFO minister, who I call the fishing czar, has incredible powers throughout his ministry to make changes. A recent example of that is the arbitrary decision to move 1,500 metric tonnes of northern shrimp away from the Newfoundland and Labrador people and into the hands of the people of Prince Edward Island, completely forgetting the adjacency principle of that.
However, the finance minister can now make similar decisions, overriding the will of parliament or, for that matter, even overriding the will of the people of Canada through their elected officials by doing basically whatever he would like to do. He would have the power to do that through the bill. I find that very disturbing.
It is amazing that a document, which is 900 pages long, has to be rushed through the House so quickly. If anything, a bill that has 900 pages should be extremely and carefully scrutinized. There should be no time limit on that. It should be available so that every Canadian understands thoroughly, in very simple and plain language, exactly what this means in their daily lives.
My hon. colleague from Regina—Qu'Appelle has gone through the bill very carefully and has mentioned some very serious concerns. He has mentioned the lack of community investment and the fact that a particular bank, like the Banque Nationale, could actually be absorbed and moved to the United States. Those are very deep concerns not only for the province of Quebec but I am sure for other areas as well.
What the bill will eventually do is lead to the slippery slope of American or foreign control of our financial institutions. I believe most Canadians would fear that indeed.