Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to respond to Bill C-9, which is 880 pages long and a very good paperweight, I might add.
First I want to make some comments on what the member for Western Arctic said. The member for Western Arctic spoke briefly about the Canadian banking system, why it is as strong as it is and the fact that it has nothing to do with the actions of the government. The fact of the matter is that the banking system is as strong as it is because opposition parties like the NDP were here 10 years ago fighting in the House to stop the Liberals, at the time, from allowing the banks to merge.
Members will recall that 10 years ago the government of the day or at least the banks were very interested in following the policies of deregulation, financial institutions and the financial system going on in the United States. They were chafing at the bit. The five existing banks in this country wanted to amalgamate among themselves to become even more powerful institutions. They felt they had to do that to compete with the huge American banks. In other words, they wanted to be too big to fail.
It was the NDP at the time that chased and fought the Liberals on this issue and helped prevent the banks from merging.