Finance committee  Mr. Chair, members of Parliament, thank you for inviting us to share with you some comments on Bill S-5, the Financial System Review Act. My name is David Phillips, and I'm president and CEO of Credit Union Central of Canada, also known as Canadian Central. Canadian Central is

Finance committee  One of the goals of modern provincial Personal Property Security Act legislation is to bring greater certainty and predictability to the resolution of priority competitions between secured lenders, and this legislation is largely successful in achieving this objective. The cont

Finance committee  Personal property security registration is working very well right now. We were informed that this was a technical bill. We respect that, and we understand that this is a technical fix. What I'm trying to draw attention to is that the Bank Act security provisions, which go back t

Finance committee  What's happening is that—

Finance committee  —this produces uncertainty. It produces costs. It's duplicative, because there's a second registration system. It's also unfair, because it gives banks a form of security that other lenders can't have.

Finance committee  Which they do already.

Finance committee  Sure; I mean, they're using the PPSA systems as the main source of registration.

Finance committee  The 427 is just used as a backup if they have a problem with their PPSA. They don't, normally, but if they did, they could fall back on it. Again, it's duplicative and costly. The lenders, the credit unions, have to search the Bank Act registry, and it's $50 at least. Their fee

Finance committee  No, that's the lawyers, I think.

Finance committee  Well, it's a technical bill, right? So there's not a whole lot in there that.... I mean, we have the sorting out of the classes of the CPA. We have some additional powers under the act. We have the extension of our charter, which is important to us. But it's a technical bill, s

Finance committee  Disclosure can always be helpful. I'm not thoroughly familiar with those provisions, but....

Finance committee  Okay. Thank you. We'll look at it.

Finance committee  But I am here to talk about Bill S-5 and I made three points—

Finance committee  I discussed the CPA membership class. I discussed the technology powers. We have qualms about the section 427.... I discussed—

Finance committee  —the extension of the charter, so I spoke directly to Bill S-5.