Peter Stoffer

[Species At Risk Act, September 19th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from St. John's for his presentation. He talked about Newfoundland being one of the last frontiers with much wildlife. He is absolutely correct. It is indeed one of the more beautiful places on the planet.

Recently it was announced that some logging would be done around some very sensitive salmon river areas. Voisey's Bay has been talked about as well as the expansion of power near the Churchill area along with Quebec. What does he think those so-called megaprojects would do to the wildlife and the habitat of Newfoundland and Labrador?

[Species At Risk Act, September 19th, 2000]

Whitehorse.

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think anyone on this side of the House said we should nationalize banks. I also do not think anybody on this side of the House said that they were evil.

The member is right, our banking institutions are the envy of the world. They are extremely profitable and communities in River John, Nova Scotia and Fredericton, New Brunswick are very concerned about the closure of their banks.

We do not demand that they provide this service. They are making billions and billions of dollars. One would think that they would have some community spirit left in their banking souls in order to provide service to Canadians.

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I will quickly answer that question with another question. How many individual members of the Alliance Party will actually be able to afford the dinner? I doubt that very many of them will be there.

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I know we are switching the topic here but I do not think there is one Canadian who does not think that he or she is paying too much taxes. However, what they also want is accountability for the public dollars that they send to Ottawa, and that, unfortunately, is not helping right now.

It is okay to think about tax cuts but if they turn into user fees we have a bigger problem. As I have said many times in the House, we need a full and open debate on taxation from the municipal, provincial, territorial and federal levels. We also need a full debate on what programs Canadians want, how much they are willing to spend and on the accountability of parliamentarians in order to spend their hard earned tax dollars.

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I believe this is the very quick, slippery slope to foreign control of our banking institutions as well as the re-engineered talks of the bank mergers themselves. Even the banks have said that if they were allowed to merge thousands upon thousands of Canadians would lose their jobs and thousands of branches would be closed throughout Canada. I believe, as is the case with most other institutions in this country, that we will eventually lose control of these institutions and they will be moved over to American or foreign control.

I find it astonishing that the Canadian Alliance and the Liberal Party have refused to debate this issue. Usually when they refuse to debate that means they are trying to hide something or trying to slip something through on the Canadian people. I find it disgusting that they will not even engage Canadians on this very important topic.

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I will only speak for about five minutes in order to allow my colleague from the Bloc to speak on this issue as well.

I just want to say to the hon. member that it is quite ironic that those members wish to have this bill passed, and fairly quickly I would assume. It is no coincidence that RBC Dominion Securities—and correct me if I am wrong but they are the same ones who had trouble with some sort of fraud situation that happened a while ago—will be one of the customers buying a $25,000 table at the Alliance dinner to meet with Mr. Day.

I find it quite ironic that the CBA, the Canadian Bankers Association, on which the Royal Bank is a member, wants very quick passage of this bill. One just has to tie the links together; $25,000 for a table indicates quick passage of a bill. It is quite obvious from where the Alliance is speaking, and it is not in terms of the grassroots community.

I have two letters in front of me. One letter is from a person in Fredericton, New Brunswick and the other is from a person in River John, Nova Scotia. Both of these individuals are small business people who are very concerned about the closure of their banks in their communities. This is what happens when one has a central based government that thinks from Windsor to Quebec City and ignores the rural parts of the country.

Throughout, people have been very concerned and very passionate about their banks and, in most cases, myself included, have been very proud of our banking history, but lately the banks have forgotten what their purpose is in terms of service to the community and service to rural parts of Canada.

No one will ever deny that banks are very generous when it comes to donations to various arts, sports and culture, and they should be congratulated for that, but what small communities require is a banking presence in their communities.

Many seniors and people with disabilities are finding it very difficult to access banking services. Some people do not have the technology or the finances to afford computer services in their homes. The majority of Canadians still do not have computers in their homes. Many people are very distrustful of the ATM services. In some cases the ATM services are restricted in their ability to provide services to the majority of people.

As a party we are also very concerned about the powers this bill would give one individual in parliament or, as in this particular case, in cabinet. As I mentioned before in questions and comments, what happens is that the DFO minister, who I call the fishing czar, has incredible powers throughout his ministry to make changes. A recent example of that is the arbitrary decision to move 1,500 metric tonnes of northern shrimp away from the Newfoundland and Labrador people and into the hands of the people of Prince Edward Island, completely forgetting the adjacency principle of that.

However, the finance minister can now make similar decisions, overriding the will of parliament or, for that matter, even overriding the will of the people of Canada through their elected officials by doing basically whatever he would like to do. He would have the power to do that through the bill. I find that very disturbing.

It is amazing that a document, which is 900 pages long, has to be rushed through the House so quickly. If anything, a bill that has 900 pages should be extremely and carefully scrutinized. There should be no time limit on that. It should be available so that every Canadian understands thoroughly, in very simple and plain language, exactly what this means in their daily lives.

My hon. colleague from Regina—Qu'Appelle has gone through the bill very carefully and has mentioned some very serious concerns. He has mentioned the lack of community investment and the fact that a particular bank, like the Banque Nationale, could actually be absorbed and moved to the United States. Those are very deep concerns not only for the province of Quebec but I am sure for other areas as well.

What the bill will eventually do is lead to the slippery slope of American or foreign control of our financial institutions. I believe most Canadians would fear that indeed.

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, again it amazes me that the Alliance Party, the former Reform Party, thinks that competition always has to be in terms of foreign competition. On the airline policy, it would like to have more American carriers up here which eventually would destroy our Canadian airline industry. It also wishes to have more foreign control of our financial institutions which would probably mean the end of Canadian control of our banks.

When talking about the banks, as they do about the post office, most Canadians do not say very many positive things about the banks but they do speak about the poor service or bank closures in their communities.

This bill will give a tremendous amount of power to an individual finance minister. He or she will have tremendous powers and will become a banking czar, taking away parliamentary responsibilities or even the ability of members of parliament, duly elected by the people of Canada, to have any input. This is similar to the minister of fisheries whom we now call the fishing czar who has tremendous powers within his ministry which override the will of parliament.

Could the hon. member comment on the fact that the bill would make the finance minister a banking czar who would sometimes override the will of parliament?

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member from my beautiful home province of Nova Scotia and beautiful Cape Breton Island on his well thought out remarks.

The government holds a majority position and in many aspects it is blatantly arrogant toward the people of Canada, especially in rural and small communities. In order that small and rural communities can have adequate banking services, what does the member suggest that Canadians who are watching us today do to point out the deficiencies of the bill to the Liberal Party and to other parties who would support the bill?

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I draw the attention of the House to the member of the Alliance Party, the hon. member for Souris—Moose Mountain, who on August 18 with his wife celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I congratulate him on behalf of all of us in the House of Commons.

I have a question for my hon. colleague from Vancouver East. Years ago the Government of Canada made a fishing czar out of the DFO minister by allowing him more unprecedented powers ever than any other minister in the House. Now it appears that this legislation will make a banking czar out of the Minister of Finance. I would like comments from my colleague for Vancouver East on what she thinks of the new banking czar this bill may create if it is passed.