Madam Speaker, I want to thank my good friend for his kind comments. He asked many very substantive questions so I will try to address them all in turn.
With respect to the single securities regulator, I share his view on that issue. It is absolutely a positive step forward for our country to do that and I certainly thank him for that support. In terms of raising money, in terms of having a uniform system across this country that investors, both domestic and foreign, can invest their money and apply under the same sort of guidelines and have the same force on mechanisms, that would certainly be a good thing for this country.
I know the Bloc and the member on the finance committee from the NDP have raised concerns that Quebec has a very good system and it does not want to see that lost in terms of a national securities regulator, but the response to that is to say that the good things that happen within the Quebec system could be applied to the country as a whole.
So if the securities regulation works well in Quebec, that is something we should apply to the entire country. I would also say that to people in my own province because there are people in Alberta concerned about a common securities regulator, so on that point I would certainly support that.
In terms of home building, as the member knows, there are many initiatives in terms of housing, the home renovation tax credit. The hon. member for Newton—North Delta, I believe, brought forward a private member's bill in the last Parliament with respect to people being able to access more money out of their RRSPs. I commend the member, a fellow British Columbian of the hon. member opposite, for bringing that forward.
In terms of the rollover issue, I have certainly heard that idea. It is an idea worthy of discussion and merit. It has not been acted upon thus far, but it is certainly something we could consider as we go forward in the next pre-budget hearings in the fall.
With respect to the member's third area of credit, he is absolutely right. The biggest challenge facing businesses, small and large, across this country and consumers is access to credit. I am very glad that he is supportive of the measures with respect to providing more funds through BDC, EDC and CMHC. We had all these organizations before the committee on the access to credit issue. They are very welcome in terms of getting the money to them, but we have also expanded their role.
In terms of current projects being eligible, obviously as a parliamentarian I would hesitate to say whether one project or another could be eligible, but in terms of EDC, it will have more money available to lend to credit worthy businesses, but it will also have an expanded role especially domestically here in Canada, in terms of what it can and cannot do. As the member would recognize, EDC is widely recognized as an excellent institution and I look forward to its even greater role both internationally and domestically here in Canada.