Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to some of the observations of the New Democrat members, especially the member from Winnipeg, about the bank hours, and probably the hours of the credit unions too. She talked about that creating problems of accessibility for a lot of people who then become trapped into dealing with these groups that are on the outside or the periphery of the issue of banking and availability of financial services.
I am curious. There is some speculation that Wal-Mart may be moving into Canada and providing banking services through its outlets. Knowing Wal-Mart's hours, those stores would likely be open as many hours as they can, seven days a week and in the evenings and so on. I think the Wal-Mart corporate philosophy is to increase the standard of living for people by reducing the cost of living to people. Arguably, Wal-Mart does that.
I know this is perhaps only a bit germane to the discussion about the legislation, but what are the member's views about Wal-Mart moving into this area? Would Wal-Mart be part of the solution to reducing some of the problems and some of the vulnerability of low income people who cannot access banks and credit unions? Might this be a positive?