Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his commentary and I know of the good work that he has been doing on the finance committee. I tend to agree with him that the issue of trying to deal with an omnibus piece of legislation which touches 11 different acts related to financial institutions is a very ominous chore, particularly when it is somewhat restricted.
I think there were only three hearing days at committee and even at second reading, the speeches really could not get into some of the detail because one had to go to committee to hear the witnesses to get some of the rationale for some of those key changes.
One of the changes that has been made is to the Cooperatives Act. It has to do with the disclosure of information to consumers about some of their products. I note that specifically, even though there were only three hearing days at committee, the committee itself made an amendment. I did not quite understood why and maybe the member can help.
It has to do with clause 165 of the bill which deals with any account or service that is provided to a customer and that the individual requesting the goods or services shall receive information about all charges. It talks about how the customers will be notified about any increases in the charges and information about how they will be notified or be kept apprised of the association's procedures related to complaints.
That was in the original bill. That remains in the bill as amended by the committee with the following change. It effectively says that the governor in council may make regulations specifying the circumstances under which a retail association need not provide that information to a consumer.
It would seem to me that consumers have a need to know, so that they can make informed decisions. I have not heard an argument yet as to the nature of something that would not be applicable to disclose the fees or the charges, the notification of changes to the terms and conditions about what they got involved in, and also information with regard to complaints which will help the consumer.
I wonder if the member has some recollection as to the discussion which led to the amending of this section and indeed the related section in the Bank Act itself, which gave to the governor in council the authority to make regulations exempting an institution from such disclosure. In fact, I would have thought that the purpose of making the amendments to the act is to respond to the consumers' need to know, and to have full disclosure and accountability with regard to the fees, services and charges that are being levied.