Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is absolutely right and it is one of the things I probably should have pointed out in my speech. The shares are in fact widely held and constitute a significant portion of Canada's wealth both in pensions, in RRSPs and directly held by individual Canadians. Yes, this is an extremely important area for our financial stability.
The member is also right to point out that a year or two ago insurance companies, particularly in the property and casualty sections, were experiencing some extreme difficulties. I think their normal return on equity is somewhere in the order of about 8% to 12% and they were experiencing negative returns on equity in the order of 1% or 2%. That is not sustainable in a market where, if the stock market flattens out or goes down and claims go up, in very short order they would have some difficulties with the sustainability and viability of their insurance companies.
These are challenges that the government faces. I would like to think that the Government of Canada over the last number of years has faced that regulatory challenge quite well. Therefore what we see is improved wealth creation in the hands of pension funds and in the hands of individual Canadians through the increased viability of our financial institutions.
We see institutions like Scotiabank that has made significant inroads internationally and now generates something in the order of 40% of its gross revenues offshore. This is a significant accomplishment on the part of that particular bank.
Sun Life and Manulife are Canadian success stories and have achieved a level of success around the world which I think augers well for Canadian pension plans, Canadian RRSPs and Canadian individuals. All of their share values have increased quite dramatically.
I think the Royal Bank is either number one or number two and Manulife is either number one or number two depending on the day on the Toronto Stock Exchange. My recollection is that about $50 billion is the share value of the Royal Bank.
Those are rather important and critical investments for Canadian pensions and Canadian wealth creation.