Finance committee  There would be no need, exactly--but we don't resort to offshore companies.

Finance committee  Exactly.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. CAMIC commends the government for tabling a review of the financial services legislation that maintains unchanged subsection 416(2) of the Bank Act that prohibits the retailing of insurance in the branches of a bank. In our view, this will maintain the l

Finance committee  Demutualized insurance companies are stock companies now, so the comparison between the stock companies and the mutuals is that at the end of the day these mutual insurance companies do not wish to make a profit over the long term. Over the short term, sure enough, we want that b

Finance committee  There's no real need. There is a need over the short term because we want those organizations to be continuous organizations over the long term, so we want to be there for the bad days. In order to do so we have to maintain reserves and we have to maintain surpluses within those

Finance committee  That's right, but this is not to say that we're not able to set them up. We are able to set them up. We just don't resort to that. What we're saying is that having offshore companies gives an advantage, obviously. It seems to be giving an advantage, and what we want you to do is

Finance committee  In my view, it has hurt competition. When you go into a financial institution for a loan, they use that occasion to say they'd like you to meet the person next door, who just happens to be selling insurance. Of course, you can always say no, but it's difficult to say no when you'

Finance committee  The white paper that came out of the Department of Finance does not give additional insurance-retaining powers to the banks. But that may change. You will go to legislation, and you may hold consultations at that time. The same can happen at the Senate level. So there are still o

Finance committee  Exactly.

Finance committee  That is a good question to which I do not have the answer. I assume that Revenue Canada employees are highly qualified and that it would be beneficial to have more agents working on this type of problem. We also confront the same problem in the world of insurance. We know that Ca

Finance committee  No, it would be approximately 2 to 3% of sales.

Finance committee  Yes. We are talking about a contingency fund reserved for either natural or man-made catastrophes. We simply want to be better prepared to deal with such situations. Having such a reserve would prevent our companies from having to create offshore companies in order to benefit fro

Finance committee  I believe that you have understood our submission very well. We fully respect the one-person, one-vote principle, along with all other Canadians who believe that this country should be governed according to this same principle. Our goal is to turn a profit in the short term, not

Finance committee  Thank you for allowing the Canadian Association of Mutual Insurance Companies to appear before this committee. CAMIC represents 92 property and casualty mutual insurers in Canada, and as most Canadian-owned insurers are mutuals, CAMIC represents the majority of Canadian-owned in