Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague on the issues of equalization, but the other part of this motion concerns the need for a securities regulator. The examples that I have heard from the Bloc today have not really explained any real commitment at the provincial levels to ensure that investors are protected against stock fraud, not that I believe for a second that the Conservatives have a very clear plan. But the issue has to be addressed.
We have to look no further than the issue of Bre-X, which I brought up earlier. This stock fraud was set up on one of the smaller stock exchanges in Calgary. It moved onto the TSX. Six billion dollars in investments were defrauded through Bre-X and at the end of the day, the RCMP shrugged and said it could not launch an investigation. de Guzman jumped, was pushed or took a parachute to freedom. Walsh took off to the Bahamas and then later died. Felderhof, who was the chief geologist, was finally charged with insider trading. He was the guy who was seeing the gold samples and yet the Ontario securities regulator could not bring any charges and convict him. At no provincial level were the investors protected. How will the investors be protected in a time of economic uncertainty if we just maintain this patchwork of services?