--because in fact the Bank Act is not written to ensure transparency and accountability to Canadians.
I see there is some curiosity on the part of my colleagues across the way. Let me tell them what we tried to do at the committee that was studying Bill C-37. In order to get some accountability from the banks, we moved a motion suggesting that there should be publication of the names of the banks that violated the consumer provisions of the Bank Act. We were not allowed to do that. Supposedly it was beyond the scope of the bill.
I must say that outside of an amendment from the Bloc around equity in community reinvestment and a few technical amendments from the Conservatives, the rest of the amendments came from the New Democratic Party. The two hours spent debating and amending the bill were primarily focused on the 30 or so amendments that I put forward. Not one was put forward by the Liberals, not a single amendment, not a single recommendation to change the Bank Act. Nothing. Nada.
Yet the former minister of national revenue, presently the Liberal finance critic, stands up in the House and lambastes the NDP for what? For doing our job. For devoting time and energy to study a piece of legislation.
Or is it still a sore point around the income trusts and the fact that we did our job when the Liberals were in government? When the Liberal government would not answer for the suspicious stock market activity on November 23, 2005 we asked the government to do something about it. We asked the government to investigate. It would not.