Mr. Speaker, recently the government tabled its bill to reform financial institutions.
Could the government assure us that this bill is going to include amendments that will protect the medium sized banks such as the National Bank in Quebec?
Just before the election was called, the Secretary of State for Financial Institutions had committed to amending the bill with the conditions set out in a letter from Bernard Landry, Quebec's minister of finance and deputy premier, specifically in order to protect the specific nature of Quebec as far as its financial institutions are concerned, the National Bank in particular, in the event of a control bid by a single individual, which would be contrary to the interests of Quebec.