moved for leave to introduce Bill C-219, an act to amend the Canada Business Corporations Act (qualification of auditor).
Mr. Speaker, the bill I am introducing today seeks to amend the Canada Business Corporations Act dealing with the qualifications of auditors. It calls for the complete independence of auditors. So we can trust the financial statements of the companies where many of our pension plans are invested, we want to ensure that the auditor auditing the financial statements is completely independent of the company.
In other words, it would preclude the auditor or auditing firm from selling any other financial services to the same company. The financial contractor should not be able to give tax advice to the company and also serve as the auditor of the company's books. We believe it is a direct conflict of interest.
We believe this is a very important and timely bill if we are to trust the financial statements of the companies in which we invest.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)