Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my amazing colleague, the hard-working member of Parliament, the hon. member for Davenport.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak in support of Bill C-15, the budget 2025 implementation act, No. 1. Our government has been focused on bringing down costs and creating new opportunities for Canadians. The first thing we have done as a government is to cancel the divisive consumer carbon price, reducing, as a result, gas prices by approximately 18¢ per litre in most provinces and territories while strengthening industrial carbon prices so that we can continue our moral and economic duty to combat climate change. We have also cut taxes for 22 million Canadians, saving a family of two up to $840 per year.
In budget 2025, we are making generational investments in our Canadian Armed Forces, in infrastructure and in housing. We are building Canada strong. We are also creating new career opportunities for young Canadians. We are launching a youth climate corps and are providing 175,000 opportunities through Canada summer jobs, the horizontal youth employment and skills strategy and the student work placement program in 2026-27.
The bill is delivering measures to make life more affordable for Canadians. We know, for example, that the digitalization in the financial sector has brought many benefits for consumers. At the same time, we know that consumers who remain reliant on legacy financial products and services may be missing out on these benefits and getting left behind.
Access to cheque fund rules are now over a decade old and have not kept pace with cost of living increases or technological advances. That is why budget 2025 proposes to amend the Bank Act to raise the first amount of immediately available deposited cheque funds from $100 to $150. That means removing the timing distinction between funds deposited in-person and via other ways. We are reducing the number of days banks may hold deposited cheque funds, which will include raising the current value threshold of $1,500, below which shorter cheque hold periods would apply. This would also apply the changes to trust and loan companies.
Once again, Bill C-15 would make this change a reality. That is not the only way that the bill would improve financial services to help Canadians manage their money.
Consumer-driven banking refers to a secure framework that lets Canadians and businesses share their financial data with the approved service providers of their choice. This framework would give consumers greater control over their data. It would also promote a competitive and innovative financial sector that strengthens Canada's position in the global digital economy.
The goal of Canada's consumer-driven banking framework is to promote competition and innovation in the financial sector, improve financial outcomes for Canadians and ensure that consumers can share their data securely. In other countries, regulated frameworks have proven effective at achieving accessibility and supporting new financial service providers and business models.
At the same time, we know that the absence of a secure framework means that about nine million Canadians currently share their financial data by providing their confidential banking credentials in a process known as screen scraping. These consumers face increased security, liability and privacy risks, and may be left without resources if something goes wrong. Our consumer-driven banking framework will address these risks by using application programming interfaces, or APIs, a type of technology that provides a more secure communication connection between entities.
Giving Canadians greater controls over their financial data would open the door to new financial products and greater choices between providers, which would create a more dynamic financial sector and productive economy. Unlocking these new opportunities will lead to improved financial decision-making, lower costs, and more tailored products and services for consumers.
Bill C-15 will be fundamental to achieving this, as it proposes legislative changes that would complete the consumer-driven banking framework by transferring its governance to the Bank of Canada and making a legislative amendment to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act that would grant Canadians a right to data mobility, supporting an economy-wide approach to data sharing.
All Canadians are expected to benefit from a consumer-driven banking framework. It would promote competition and reduce risks in the financial services industry by regulating financial data sharing. For consumers, this could mean greater financial inclusion, more informed decisions and better management and reduction of financial stressors. For businesses, it could mean improved access to new forms of financing and reducing the administrative burden with better integration and automation of key functions.
Lower income and financially stressed households are expected to benefit most through access to lower-cost products, clearer choices and tools to manage debts and reduce financial stress.
What is more is this is not only the way that Bill C-15 would help Canadian financial consumers save and manage their money. Competition in the sector can also drive efficiency and support economic development and productivity, as financial institutions are driven to allocate capital to their most productive uses.
Budget 2025 and Bill C-15 build on actions our new government has already taken to make life more affordable by delivering three major tax cuts, supercharging homebuilding to increase supply and lower housing costs and introducing automatic federal benefits so that millions of Canadians receive the support they qualify for.
That is why budget 2025 and Bill C-15 merit our full support.