Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to participate in this debate on an important piece of legislation to reform the Canadian financial system.
When dealing with the Canadian financial system, we should be aware that we are dealing with day to day operations, the savings of Canadians, the economic activity that should exist in all communities where there are institutions where we can make transactions and deposit our savings. This kind of bill is a matter of bread and butter and it concerns the economic activity.
In that sense we could perhaps take the government to task for not doing enough publicity and raising public awareness of the importance of this bill, which is the end result of a long process. It is not easy to amend the Bank Act. Extensive consultations are necessary. It seems to me more thought should have been given to raising public awareness.
Something struck me when I read the bill. I would like to bring a number of points to the attention of the House, starting with the regulatory authority the bill is giving to the finance minister.
When we talk about regulatory power, just as when we talk about the privatization of public agencies, we are talking about loss of control, the loss of the right to have a say in these matters for parliament, parliamentarians, the elected representatives that we are, and therefore a loss of control for the people, the Quebec people and the Canadian people, because things will be done mostly through regulations. That is the bureaucracy.
I believe this is a threat to democracy about which we make great claims. We are very good at telling people how to administer themselves. Canada takes great pride in doing so. In certain respects it may be right, but it seems to me it should be more concerned than it is about ensuring that the elected members of parliament do not lose their powers so systematically and regularly.
You know as well as I do—and the matter is being debated in university circles—that constitutional experts are increasingly worried about the loss of power experienced in democracies by the people and their representatives. It is indicative of a certain form of disregard for the democratic system to which we owe our presence here.
There is another point that strikes me: this reform is taking place in a context fraught with contradictions—my colleague from the NDP alluded to this earlier—and we are asked to stand by somewhat passively. As consumers we are even more powerless and victimized. I am referring to the decrease in banking services in general, the decrease in the number of business hours and the increase in service charges, which is a contradiction in view of the decrease in services.
I am also referring to job loss. This is another contradiction since banks are raking in huge profits, record profits that are piling up year after year to the tune of several billions of dollars; and the very same month, they have the nerve to announce they are going to lay off dozens, hundreds, thousands of bank employees as a result of a streamlining effort that might be justified. This is a tragedy across the world.
And this brings us to another characteristic of banks, which is their symbolic value. People talk about neo-liberalism, with its internal logic, the infernal logic of modern capitalism whereby profits are never high enough and must always be boosted. It has now reached the point where if the expected profits do not materialize, it is the stock which takes the hit.
So there is a logic which is increasingly uncontrolled and which seems uncontrollable whereby life, for those who work, must be infernal, when one is subject to such pressure, always in the name of the great diktat of money, profit and profit for profit's sake.
One gets the feeling, in the development strategy of all the banks, of the entire Canadian banking system, of an attempt at rationalization which is far from being to the benefit of consumers, which is far from being to the benefit of users, which is far from being to the benefit of employees, and which is aimed solely at profit, for example, perhaps going beyond what shareholders are asking for.
Some interesting studies could be done of this because social peace, quality of life, harmony and distribution of wealth are concepts that so-called civilized societies such as ours hold dear. Some surveys are perhaps in order. They would show that the big anonymous managers of this world, with their red suspenders, would perhaps do better to develop greater sensitivity to people's real expectations, to get a better read on the aspirations of the public in general.
There is one specific area that is somewhat related to this, and to which my colleague has referred, something dear to the heart of my colleague from Hochelaga—Maisonneuve: the community aspect. There is one striking aspect, in particular in the eastern part of Montreal: branch closures. It seems that it could be demonstrated that the poorer the population, the more bank branches are being closed, and thus the fewer tangible, physical services are being provided.
The physical accessibility of services to the public is being decreased, services to people who are already disadvantaged, who may have difficulty getting around and may not be able to afford to. Perhaps they have to take a bus or the metro to a bank that is further away because their local one has been closed, thumbing its nose at customers and their needs.
This is evidence of a management philosophy that must be deplored, a philosophy that is totally egocentric. In a sector that is totally pretentious, judging by its advertising boasting about its services to customers, while closing hundreds and hundreds of branches as is systematically happening with all the banks, I believe there are grounds for criticism and for wondering where things are headed, since once again this is all happening within a context of huge profits.
There is one other very troubling aspect to this bill: the discretionary power given to the minister to apply the legislation. When one reads something along the lines of “the minister may, if he deems necessary” and “if the minister so decides”, these are discretionary powers that are always cause for concern and always troubling. It should be made clearer. The minister's powers should be better defined, so as to be in a better position to criticize them, to assess the decisions made and the quality of the management, by the Department of Finance and its minister, of any issue.
This is a serious criticism, because discretionary power implies arbitrary decisions. And that is much more serious. It is even harder to protect oneself against arbitrary decisions.
Another aspect—and this refers to the question that I asked the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre—concerns of course Quebec's largest bank, which is granted special status. That bank is ranked sixth or seventh in Canada, but it does business almost exclusively in Quebec.
Quebec's National Bank is a bank that does not operate on as large a territory as the other major banks, but it is nevertheless a big bank. Under the bill, a single shareholder could buy its shares and hold a 65% interest in it, while the limit is 20% for the other banks.
Hon. members will realize that, for us sovereignists, the message is very clear. Some wonder what Quebec sovereignty is all about; they wonder why we should have the status of a province when we are subjected and dominated as a people, when, in spite of his great competence, the Quebec minister of finance can only make recommendations or suggestions to his federal counterpart, who may or may not take them into account. This is what being dominated is about. This is what not being a sovereign nation is all about. By contrast, if Quebec were a sovereign state, it goes without saying that Quebec's National Bank would not be at the mercy of foreign investors as it is about to be.
Hon. members will realize that there is a constitutional area and that the example I just provided is an illustration of non-sovereignty. This is what it would mean, among other things, for Quebecers who are listening to us.
There is another aspect to this issue in that the federal government is interfering in the area of consumer protection, something the Quebec government is already doing very effectively with its own legislation. Once again, the federal government is sticking its nose where it does not belong, which has become a habit.
In my opinion, this attitude fits in with the social union concept, with the new aggressive and determining role the federal government will play in the lives of Canadians in the next century. The federal government will be the real government, and the provincial governments will be nothing more than large RCMs, large regional county municipalities. That may be necessary for the good management of Canada. It is the problem of Canadians. But for Quebecers, it is a disaster.
If we stay in the federation, the Quebec government will lose some of its powers, it will become a large regional government and will have all of its legislation overruled, as it is already systematically being done and as is being done today with this bill.
The federal government is duplicating legislation that is working well, as it did yesterday with regard to endangered species, an area where Quebec has had its own legislation for years. That legislation has been very effective. The federal government has decided, without consultation, to legislate in the same area, totally ignoring everything Quebec may have done.
Therefore we must realize that this raises serious constitutional issues. The subject of the Banque Nationale is a good opportunity to talk about the Quebec model in the area of finance and venture capital.
Quebecers, as you might know and as I have come to notice when I was industry critic from 1993 to 1995, are the envy of many Canadians because of the tools we have in the area of finance. There is the Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs du Québec, the Caisse de dépôt et placement, the Société générale de financement and the wonderful Mouvement Desjardins, despite all the critics we can hear about it. Thank God it is there. If the Mouvement Desjardins did not exist, Quebec sovereignty could well be unthinkable. The Mouvement Desjardins is still a free organization, depending on Quebec resources only and we must be thankful about that. Then there is the CSN's Fonds de développement.
Being interconnected, all these organizations offer us a galaxy of stakeholders who can reduce the risks and who invest more and more in some high risk and high technology areas. Thanks to them, Quebec is amongst the best in the world in certain areas. I am thinking for instance of biotechnology and aeronautics. It is important to recognize it, what with Bombardier being the largest manufacturing corporation in Canada.
Thus, when the federal government interferes in this sector, it touches a very sensitive subject where Quebec, as in many other areas, has nothing to learn from our Canadian friends.
In closing, I too want to pay tribute to Mr. Yves Michaud, just like my hon. colleague for Winnipeg Centre did earlier. Mr. Michaud is a great Quebecer. A former member of the national assembly, he was a career journalist. He represented Quebec in Paris with great dignity. A cultured mind and a very eloquent speaker, Mr. Michaud made us proud wherever he went. Today, he is fighting a very important and extremely worthy battle to protect small savers and consumers against a huge monster, the Canadian financial system.
He has been scoring points. He has also been lecturing the financial establishment, which is really not a bad thing to do. Earlier, my colleague from the New Democratic Party compared the compensation package of the bank directors to the wages of the bank tellers. This is a very normal thing to do. When we compare ourselves to other countries, we see how far things have gone here.
We must give the credit to Mr. Michaud, despite some rather mean news reports recently aired by the CBC. Sometimes, in Quebec, we go for attack journalism. We had a good example then of the kind of petty journalism that members are probably aware of. Fortunately, Mr. Michaud used all of his fine qualities and eloquence to set things straight.
This is all I had to say. Obviously for all these reasons, unless it undergoes major changes, the Bloc Quebecois will be voting against the bill as it is and will be bringing forward amendments in due course.