Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for whom I have a great deal of respect. I also want to commend him on his work in Parliament. He is on top of every debate and topic discussed in Parliament. I share his opinion on all the financial scandals in the United States and here. It is becoming increasingly rare for an experienced director to want to run a public company, and with good reason. There are millions of shareholders who have lost exorbitant amounts of money in these numerous scandals. Just recently in the Norbourg affair in Quebec, let us say the news is not good.
Nonetheless, as I was saying earlier, the bill is an improvement in terms of transparency and diligence. However, there are no specific provisions in terms of auditing and that is what we want to work on at the Standing Committee on Finance. There are no specific provisions on auditing or the authenticity of information on the activities of a publicly traded company. As for the directors' responsibility, there is some grey area in the definition of the new concept called “due diligence”, which supposedly could, according to discussions held with senior officials, improve the level of security of directors in terms of legal proceedings, while ensuring that rules are clearer on their responsibilities. This is being called “due diligence”.
This is what we heard:
With a due diligence defence, the directors may act reasonably prudently by relying on financial statements represented to them by an officer of the corporation or by relying on their own assessment of the financial health of the corporation. However, the due diligence defence also recognizes that the nature and extent of the expected precautions will vary under each circumstance.
Admittedly, this is quite vague. This is supposed to improve the situation and directors and shareholders will feel more secure. However, we do not yet know how. These are issues we are going to delve into at the Standing Committee on Finance.