Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Québec. As members know, I respect her and what she stands for and, of course, continues to stand for.
I think that the most eloquent answer came from Quebec's minister of finance, one of the best as we know to have sat on the government benches. With the House's permission, I will quote what he said to the federal Minister of Finance last December at the meeting of finance ministers:
We made known to you our concerns with respect to your planned amendments to the rules governing banks in Canada. Your proposal would provide different treatment for banks with large, medium or small capital. In the case of large banks, that is those with over $5 billion in capital, it would be possible for an individual to hold not 10% but 20% of the voting shares.
The status of banks with $5 billion or less in capital is different. They can opt for a limited ownership regime.
The important thing to understand is this:
A given individual could have in excess of 20% of the voting shares, up to 65% for banks that have between $1 billion and $5 billion in capital, and up to 100% for those that have less than $1 billion in capital.
So, there is a risk that banks with less than $5 billion in equity could be owned by a single individual holding all the voting shares. But the banks that provide the greatest support to small and medium size businesses in Quebec are banks like the National Bank and the Laurentian Bank, which would be reclassified in the small bank category or in those with capital of less than $5 billion.
This is a legitimate concern because we believe that having a number of voting shareholders is a safeguard for democracy, since it goes against a concentration of ownership.
I hope I answered the question of the hon. member for Québec, whose intellectual curiosity is almost insatiable.