Madam Speaker, I thank you for recognizing me at this time, which actually accomplishes a couple of goals. First, since I have had to stand five or six times to be recognized, I have been afforded needed exercise. Second, I appreciate being able to speak before the parliamentary secretary on this particular grouping because I can hopefully change his mind since I think he may have considerable influence on the way the votes are conducted on the other side. At least I would hope he has, although I sometimes even wonder about that.
Let me address the issues that are before us in this group of amendments. I will begin, of course, with the matter of the penalty that is proposed to be amended by the member from the Bloc.
He proposes that the maximum penalty be changed. In order to see how the clause reads now, I need to haul out this book, the bill we are amending, Bill C-8. It says the maximum penalty for a violation is $50,000 in the case of a violation that is committed by a natural person and $100,000 in the case of a violation that is committed by a financial institution. That is for breaches of the act and of the regulations made by the minister.
I want to draw attention to the fact that this states the maximum penalty, so I think arguments could be made in favour of this particular amendment. The maximum penalty right now is $100,000 and the amendment says it should be a maximum of $500,000. This does not mean it is going to be applied.
As a matter of fact, if we read the next section, which is not referenced in this amendment, it states that in assessing the penalty these are some of the issues which are to be taken into account: the degree of intention or negligence on the part of the person committing the violation; the harm done; the history with respect to previous convictions or violations; and any other criteria that may be prescribed.
In assessing a penalty for a violation, I am sure that a large bank, a huge financial institution, would, under that prescription, be given a larger penalty than a small credit union somewhere, depending on the severity of the violation. Yet at the same time, I am somewhat inclined to have a substantial penalty when a large business just will not comply. That could happen. I cannot imagine under what circumstances, but it could happen.
I think, for example, of a large but unnamed mall in Edmonton. When it first started in business we had the Lord's Day Act in place in Alberta, which meant that some days were available to families to spend together because basically all of the stores were closed and just essential services were provided. It was a wonderful time, actually, when I look back at it, when we could get together with our families. We had freedom. People were not obliged to go to work. It was the same day for everyone.
Then that particular mall said that if it were to be fined $10,000 a day every time it was open on Sunday that was a fair and reasonable cost of doing business. It just paid the fine and broke the law with impunity. There was no provision under the law to escalate the penalty; it was just a straight $10,000 a day. The mall gladly paid the fine and made a lot of money.
By the way, I believe that is where the erosion started. Then it went right across the country, so that working people now no longer have a day off each week that applies to all family members. Very seldom do we see a family being able to get together. Either mom has to work or dad has to work or one of the kids who has a job at the store has to work. They cannot be together.
That is an example of a penalty so small that the business was not compelled at all to obey the law. In that sense, I have a bit of a tendency to be in favour of just increasing the maximum. It would not necessarily be applied, but this amendment would put some teeth into this for those who were in blatant violation and who continued to be so.
I must hurry because I have spent too much time on that particular provision. The next motion is Motion No. 9. That has to do with the application of a problem specific to Quebec at this time but which could happen in other provinces as well. In order to preserve my time, let me simply say that I have an inclination to agree with it.
Motion No. 10 has to do with the provision that the banks should provide for a low cost account. I do not really believe that we should have this in legislation or in law, although I agree with the principle of it. I would much rather see the banks provide these necessary low cost accounts and advertise that fact.
If a bank were to have an ad in the paper that said there were a number of people in our society from whom they just did not make a great deal of money but for whom they felt obliged to provide a banking service at a low cost, I think the bank would get a lot of public relations benefit simply by advertising that and providing a service. The bank could ask small businessmen in towns and cities or wherever to support its business with their business. I think it would benefit the bank.
I agree with the principle that a person of limited financial means should have the ability to go into a bank and cash a cheque and to have a low cost bank account. That is definitely a principle I agree with. As I said, the only reason I would vote against this is that I think would be overkill. I also do not agree with putting in a fixed amount, because maybe the bank could do it for less. Maybe of necessity it has to be $4 and a bank would be in violation if we ensconced $3 in the legislation.
I am opposed to this particular motion on the basis that it is too specific, and I think the same goals, which I agree with, can be achieved by other means.
I turn now to Motion No. 11, also put forward by the NDP member, which proposes that the closing of the branches of a bank “can only take place for reasons of financial non-profitability.” I hate to say it, but this is a dreadful amendment.
I think it is a huge imposition on business operations. It is like telling farmers they could plant only a certain kind of crop and the only reason they could ever quit planting would be if they were not making money on it; otherwise, they would have to plant that crop. I disagree with that.
I believe the banks should have a certain degree of flexibility to open and to close branches based on an efficient way of providing services in the community. For example, let us say that there is a branch over here and there is a branch over there. With modern transportation it is now much easier for people to get around, so if the banks decided to have one branch operating in the middle instead of having two branches operating, it would mean the closure of two branches. Neither of them might be losing money, but the bank could be more efficient and provide a better service for less cost, including services for low income people. I do not think we should stand in the way of this. In this particular instance, I would simply say that I would be really hard pressed to support Motion No. 11.
The last motion is the one on the credit unions, proposed by the member for Prince George—Bulkley Valley. I propose that we heartily support it. This is where I want to get the ear of the parliamentary secretary over there and have him influence all of his Liberal colleagues to vote in favour of this very fine amendment.
I happen to believe in the credit union movement. My dad was a leader in the credit union in Saskatchewan for many years. He was on the board, on the finance committee and on the loans committee. He did all sorts of things. As a result of having grown up in that kind of an atmosphere, I guess, I am sort of inclined toward credit unions.
Over the years I have given some business to the banks for different reasons, but I have found that in a competitive market my dealings with the credit unions have been most satisfactory. I do not hesitate at all to give a little bit of free advertising to them here today. They can use this clip if they want to. I give them permission. I do not know whether the rules of the House of Commons permit that, but I certainly support the credit union movement and this amendment strengthens it. The reason we should favour this amendment is that one of the best things for the Canadian financial services industry is to have good competition, where we can say to our financial institutions “Treat me like that and I am out of here”.
I am going to run out of time here, but I remember when I had a bank loan for purchasing a car. I asked the bank whether I could pay the loan off more quickly. The bank said that I could but I would have to pay a penalty. Members would not believe it, but the total payment the bank wanted in order to have me pay off that loan early was greater than the sum of the remaining payments. I said to the bank that either it was nuts or it thought I was. I was not willing to comply with that. I just finished off my payments and said that if that was how the bank did business I would look elsewhere. Sure enough, soon I found another financial institution that pleased me more and I just moved my business to it.
That is the very best thing we can do: provide competition. Credit unions are one of the primary ways of holding the banks responsible and giving them some real competition.