Pardon me, Mr. Speaker, I should not have said that.
I will explain. That is why the Liberals always side with the Conservative government. Confidence in the way the system works is wanting, and there is a crying need for real change. Everything that relates to how the country is governed, to federal-provincial relations, and to how the government deals with real problems that people face every day is part of the approach.
We do not believe that the government will take the right approach. We think that when the government wants to regulate securities, it is actually trying to take power away from the provinces, who are doing an excellent job of regulating. The government wants to chip away at the security we have and give us a system that is worse than the one we have now.
These are the reasons why we are saying that essentially we cannot agree with the government's approach. Essentially because this scandal-ridden Conservative government now has about the same credibility as the former scandal-ridden Liberal government.
We cannot say we are going to give Conservatives a licence to impose securities regulations right across the country because we do not believe that they are going to act in the appropriate way. When there are other provinces, Manitoba and Quebec being notable among them, that have actually put in place an effective system, why would the government not try to cooperate with those provinces and build on that system, and do it in an effective way that actually brings us a better system? Those are the questions that we have to ask.
I would like to talk now about the measures that the NDP has already proposed because it is an important element to add to this debate today. The member of Parliament for Winnipeg North has brought to the House, a number of different times, important motions and important suggestions to the national government.
She has put forward proposals about the issue of corporate crime and cracking down on corporate crime. The government has not picked up any of the elements that she has been proposing over the course of the past few years. She has been a very tireless crusader for diminishing the level of corporate crime and yet we have not seen the government pick up any of the elements that she and this party have put forward.
We find it remarkably suspicious that the Conservatives might try to impose something nationally when they have not put in place the building blocks that we have clearly suggested need to take place as first steps to building that comprehensive support in securities regulations right across the country.
Here are some of the elements. We have talked about an increased and independent mandate for the RCMP-integrated market enforcement team. We have called for that, but we have not seen it actualized in any of the government proposals.
We have talked about bringing international standards to Canadian corporate accounting and law. We have not seen any action on that front.
We have talked about an examination of new laws here in the House that might prevent non-compete payments and we have not seen that action as well.
We have talked about, and the member for Winnipeg North has talked about, really harnessing the expertise of the Department of Finance, the Solicitor General, Industry Canada and other federal departments. The member for Winnipeg North has been talking about this for a number of years.
What has happened? No action, essentially no action regardless of the fact that this is clearly an identified problem in certain parts of the country. When we see the province of Manitoba introducing changes to its securities act rather than having the federal government pick up on that and improve it, we see no action at the federal government level.
I would like to talk for a moment about an article that was published last fall on this issue. It is by Greg Selinger who is the chair of the Council of Ministers of Securities Regulation. He is also the Manitoba minister of finance, one of the best financially managed provinces in the country. Of course, it is an NDP government.
I note that having analyzed over 20 years of NDP governments, along with governments from the Parti Québécois, Liberal governments and Conservative governments, the federal ministry of finance, after that longitudinal and most comprehensive study in Canadian history, gave A marks to the NDP. Most NDP budgets in the actual fiscal year-end are balanced.
We cannot say the same for the other parties. In fact, two-thirds of Conservative budgets were in deficit over that 20 year period. Not their budgets, not the political spin at the beginning but the actual fiscal period returns. They were in deficit. The only ones worse than the Conservatives were the Liberals where 86% of the time they were in deficit in the actual fiscal period returns.
When I say that Manitoba is one of the best financially managed provinces in the country, it is no surprise. The NDP simply manages money better. Why is that? It is because our origins are from the best financial managers in the country, the ordinary working men and women. They are the ones who must manage household budgets. They actually need to work every day to scrimp and save to do the things they do to raise their families and contribute to their communities. They are the best financial managers in the country, which is why the NDP, not the Conservatives and Liberals because they have no proof to point to, has been noted by the federal Department of Finance as being the best financial management party in the country. That is an important element to add. We can never forget that.
I will now come back to what the Manitoba minister of finance said in the National Post on October 26. He said:
Critics also try to convince Canadians that our securities regulatory system is enormously complex and expensive. In fact, as my colleague, Quebec Minister of Finance Monique Jerome-Forget, pointed out in a recent speech, direct regulatory costs and financing costs are typically lower in Canada than in the United States, and the Canadian system is as uniform and harmonized as the American system.
He goes on to say:
The provincial and territorial governments recognize that markets evolve rapidly, and that securities regulatory systems require constant innovation and reform. Since the Provincial-Territorial Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Securities Regulation was signed in 2004, the Council of Ministers has worked hard to implement practical and meaningful reforms, with considerable success. The Council of Ministers is committed to the passport system, which improves access to Canada's capital markets by enabling participants to deal with only one regulator and one set of rules. Moreover, it recognizes the fact that securities regulation in Canada is matter of provincial jurisdiction.
He concludes by saying:
The fact is that Canada has vibrant, healthy and safe capital markets with a world-class, well-performing regulatory system. Provincial and territorial ministers are committed to continuous improvement of our regulatory system and the competitiveness of our capital markets.... The federal government should respect our jurisdiction and support the passport system. That would send a strong and important signal to Canadians and to the international community about the true state of Canadian securities regulation and Canadian capital markets
The solutions lie in what the member for Winnipeg North has proposed. The solutions do not lie in the Conservatives' attempt to try to run roughshod over provincial jurisdiction and to try to give a special gift to their corporate friends. That is why we are opposing what the Conservatives are doing.