Mr. Speaker, in the case of the acquisition of a bank, such as the National Bank, the criteria will be exactly the same—and this is provided in the legislation—as those for major bank mergers.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2006, with 48% of the vote.
Banking June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, in the case of the acquisition of a bank, such as the National Bank, the criteria will be exactly the same—and this is provided in the legislation—as those for major bank mergers.
Department Of Finance June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the premise of the hon. member's question just simply does not bear any kind of scrutiny.
Let me give one more quote from the report, following up on what the member said. It states:
In all professional service contracts reviewed, the fact that the contractors had excellent qualifications for the tasks defined was adequately demonstrated.
Department Of Finance June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the problem is of course that the hon. member opposite perhaps read the newspaper report. What he should have done was to have read the report of the internal audit.
If I can just quote, it states:
Our review of CI&S controllable expenses indicated they were generally processed in compliance with applicable policies and procedures.
We also observed a desire on the part of CI&S staff to do things right.
All professional service contracts adequately demonstrates CI&S's organizational needs.
In other words, there were obviously defects in what the hon. member was pointing to but overwhelmingly the report was positive for CI&S.
Banks June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the government is certainly not moving at a snail's pace. We intend to push as aggressively as we possibly can, obviously subject to the prerogatives of parliament, to make sure that this legislation is passed as quickly as possible.
However, we do want to have the public debate on the legislation. That is why fact we commissioned the MacKay report about 18 months to 2 years ago. We wanted to examine every possible avenue open to make sure that on the one hand our banks are able to grow as much as possible and, on the other hand, that our consumers are protected as much as possible.
Banks June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, I am afraid the hon. member misunderstands the nature of the reforms. The fact is that ultimately the Government of Canada has the right to make the decision and in fact must make a decision either yea or nay, and obviously that voice is expressed through that of the Minister of Finance.
The fact is that in this particular process we have introduced a number of steps, including the mandatory public hearings by the House of Commons finance committee and the advice from the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the Competition Bureau.
I can assure the hon. member that any decisions would be very well taken after a full examination in the public interest.
Government Spending June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, on July 1 of this year, within a couple of weeks, the middle income tax rate will drop from 26% to 24%. The full benefits of indexation will come into play. Let us look at what that party would offer. According to Catherine Ford of the Calgary Herald :
I first encountered the snake oil selling tactics promoting a flat tax years ago in the U.S. It was flawed, a tired, discredited and inherently unfair tax scheme that even the powerful right wing—
Government Spending June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the last budget brought in personal income tax reductions and unemployment insurance reductions of $54 billion out of a total of $58 billion.
I would be prepared to defend on any podium in the country our tax proposals against the flat tax of the Reform Party, which is a tax designed to do only one thing and that is to flatten the middle class.
Government Spending June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Canadian Alliance would have us believe that her party is interested in health care. Let me say that we were surfing the web the other day and we found the Canadian Alliance website. We looked under health and I will read what it has under health, “There are no current articles for this category or department”. The page is blank.
Government Spending June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, two-thirds of all of our new spending is in health care, education and basic research. The issue really is, why did the Canadian Alliance vote against the increases in the national child benefit? Why did the Canadian Alliance vote against increases in preschool child nutrition? Why did the Canadian Alliance vote against every single measure the government has brought in to help the middle class in the country and to help Canadian families?
Government Spending June 13th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the reason the government's revenues are up is that things are going very well in Canada. There are more people who are working. There is more economic activity. People's salaries are up. I hate to say this to the leader of the Canadian Alliance, but that is good news for Canadians.