Madam Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance mentioned one key element that is important to all Canadians and that is that these stocks are widely held. A lot of people may not recognize what it means to them but if they are participating in pension plans, if they have insurance or if they are buying insurance from a company, it is important for that company to be stable.
We learned not too long ago what happens when the investments of these insurance companies go sour. We had our insurance rates greatly increased because the funds backing up our insurance were reduced when the market went sour. Investments were probably too high in the technology sector and we had to pay much higher premiums to rebuild the financial capacity of those institutions.
I come back to the question of our pension plans. As Canadians we participate in RRSPs, in defined contribution pension plans or invest not necessarily in the company for which we work but invest in the market through one of the larger insurance companies, trust companies or the banks and we have an interest in where these funds are invested and that they are properly governed. As individuals, we might be a little dissociated from that because we do not directly hold the shares. They are held in trust for us.
Could the parliamentary secretary tell us how this improves our confidence as indirect participants in these financial institutions that the moneys held in trust for us on our behalf are properly managed through proper governance procedures?