Finance committee  Why would it incorporate provincially?

Finance committee  I'm not sure it would be the same grief in every case. There are going to be pluses and minuses for incorporating in any particular jurisdiction, and you would really need to consider what your strategy is overall. In some jurisdictions, for instance, the deposit insurance level is higher than it would be under this bill.

Finance committee  That would be the case potentially for a large credit union. This is a strong charter, a good charter. But you're going to want to consider your strategy very carefully.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today on part 17 of Bill C-9, the Jobs and Economic Growth Act, which proposes, among other things, to amend the Bank Act in order to allow for the establishment of federal credit unions.

Finance committee  Well, I think we are different. We're committed to member service, we're committed to working with our members, and we're committed to the communities in which we're active and in which we're located. The ethic or ethos is to work with the members. We know them. We're traditional lenders in that pure sense, that loans are made on character.

Finance committee  I always hesitate to use national market share figures because for a system that's as regionally based as us, that can sometimes not give the right impression. That's why I wanted to point out that this penetration is actually quite large in some parts of the country. Ontario is an area where our presence would be less so, but I think we're very accurate.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have about five minutes of opening remarks. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I'm joined by Mr. Ralph Luimes, chief executive officer of HALD-NOR Credit Union, located in southwestern Ontario.

Finance committee  I don't have much more to say than what's been said. The concerns we have are that it may have this effect: pricing would be less transparent, and it would affect the supply of ABM machines in the market and the convenience for Canadians. So we are not predisposed to support that as a solution.

Finance committee  That certainly is our view, and I expect that it is the banks' view.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and committee members. I want to thank you for this opportunity to appear before the committee as part of your study on ATM fees. My name is David Phillips, and I'm president and CEO of Credit Union Central of Canada, commonly known as Canadian Central.

Finance committee  Yes, if that change is not made to the federal statute, and for those credit unions that have that authority, that would be another disincentive to move under the federal statute. Our concern is really to develop this entity, under the federal law, as an option for credit unions down the road.

Finance committee  No, I don't. That's Caisses Desjardins. They have their own representation. They are not part of our system. We are really the cooperative financial system outside of Quebec. But they are good friends of ours.

Finance committee  I'll just speak to it from the perspective of the credit union system. We have established within the credit union system a surcharge-free network between credit unions. I'm a member of Alterna Savings in Toronto. I have a debit card. I'm going to be in Saskatoon tomorrow. I can go to the FirstSask ATM and pull money out and I won't be surcharged.

Finance committee  We think we're already pretty good competitors of the banks. And certainly if you look across the country, you'll find the credit union system is growing in membership each year, growing in assets, growing in locations, and has a pretty good market share in some of the markets. Not universally across the country, but there are locations where we're competing very effectively.

Finance committee  I'd be happy to. The Cooperative Credit Associations Act is in many ways a work-in-progress. This act was enacted 55 years ago by the federal Parliament. For the first 52 or 53 years there were no institutions actually incorporated under that act. My organization was continued under it, and the other organization that exists under it right now, Concentra Financial, was also continued under the act.