Mr. Speaker, having followed the debate this morning, I must admit that I have some sympathy for all sides. There have been some very good arguments. My current assessment of the motion is that the motivation of the Bloc is quite clear. It is not really debatable. The Bloc has a position on Quebec's role in Canada. When we as members of Parliament address these issues, we have to address them from a national perspective. We have to look at the best interests for all.
I agree with the previous speaker that the whole mechanics of the equalization system are currently in very bad shape. The consultative process has broken down. In fact, it has been a point of division across Canada particularly with regard to the interests of Quebec and maritime Canada. There is no simple solution to this other than good faith consultation and discussion and working out the details in the best interests of all Canadians. This is part of the federation and part of our responsibility. I will not dwell on that; it is far too important an issue to try to do it justice in the short time I have.
I want to concentrate on the common securities regulator issue. The situation now is that there is no consensus among all of the provinces. There are three options on the table. One is the status quo, the passport system, whereby there are 13 established regulators who harmonize to some extent. If one is registered in one province one can still do business in other provinces with only the single provincial or territorial registration.
The second would be to have a national one, and I will give a couple of examples of the benefits, but a unified or national securities regulator is what is being proposed by the government. There are some good arguments. I personally tend to support moving in that direction because I have been involved in this area substantially. Prior to being a member of Parliament, I was the director of finance at TransCanada PipeLines and was involved in billions of dollars of public financing. I dealt with a whole bunch of regulatory aspects with a variety of jurisdictions, not only in Canada but in the U.S.
When one gets involved in the machinations of the differences between trust indentures and regulatory regimes, the whole system gets bogged down. My apologies to the lawyers in the House, but the only people who benefit are the lawyers. They are the ones who win. It tends to be a problem.