Madam Speaker, I will start by informing you that we support some of the amendments made by the Canadian Alliance, in particular Motion No.1 by the hon. member for Prince George—Bulkley Valley relating to accountability to parliament and to a report on the administration of the act being provided to parliament from time to time.
Having gone carefully through the banking bill on more than one occasion, and before that the white paper from the Minister of Finance, following up on the MacKay-Ducros report, I noted that, for perhaps the first time in a piece of legislation of this significance, the Minister of Finance had incredible discretionary powers.
Hon. members need only give this bill a cursory examination to see, every ten pages or so, that the minister can intervene to make decisions. These decisions are at his discretion. His discretionary powers are such as have never been seen before. Thus, Motion No. 1 by my colleague for Prince George—Bulkley Valley is a marked improvement over what we had before.
Throughout the entire process, I will have the opportunity to touch back on this important aspect of ministerial discretion as opposed to what we ought to find in a bill, which is enhanced parliamentary responsibility and better monitoring of decisions taken by the minister or the governor in council.