Finance committee  Briefly, the structure of big banks gives them access to different vehicles for...I don't want to say tax avoidance, but I can't think of another word right now. Essentially, it allows them to shelter some of their income. Because of the structure of co-operatives, we just don't

Finance committee  I would take you back to Basel III. If we go with the full implementation of Basel III for all financial institutions—I think federal policy-makers recognize that it's not a good option—it would essentially bind us to rules that are the same right now for the big banks, with one

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Our association represents the 252 credit unions and caisses populaires that are outside of Quebec. We contribute $6.5 billion to Canada's economy. We have 5.7 million members. Collectively, credit unions and re

Finance committee  First of all, thank you again. It saved the sector at least $80 million, and most folks figured that was a pretty conservative estimate. Had we had to implement the changes that we thought for a while were going to be required, it would have been a huge effort and extremely cost

Finance committee  First, it's important to say that we actually value the difference between credit unions and banks. We have not been asking to use “bank” as a proper noun. In general, the provisions in the legislation are very acceptable to us. We are happy, and I would underline that we would n

Finance committee  I'm sitting here reflecting on your characterization of regulations, the meat on the bones. That's what we're concerned about. As it stands now, yes, the wording of the legislation would allow them to do that. We don't think there need to be regulations to satisfy the disclosure

Finance committee  I think we are worried that there could be regulation that allows for that. What they want by disclosure is to make sure that the credit union sector is appropriately communicating to the public who regulates and who provides deposit insurance. There are myriad ways that credit u

Finance committee  That's our goal. I would point out that in Saskatchewan they have a voluntary code now, a consumer code. They have been utilizing that code for more than a decade. They have found it very beneficial, and our work is really using Saskatchewan as a starting point. However, I agree

Finance committee  Thank you for the invitation to be here today. Our association represents almost 260 credit unions and caisses populaires outside of Quebec. We serve over 5.6 million Canadians, contributing $6.5 billion to the country's GDP. I think most of you are familiar with our sector. I

Finance committee  I would preface this by saying that this is an issue that feels a bit like a solution in search of a problem. The policy intent, as we understand it, is to avoid consumer confusion, but we've seen no evidence of consumer confusion. I've been a member of a credit union in the past

Finance committee  That's exactly why we've taken the position that we have. To your point, I believe Keremeos is the most recent community where we've seen that a credit union is the last standing financial institution. There are communities like that all over. It's really a policy approach that

Finance committee  We certainly are hearing that reflected from our membership, and they are hearing that in turn from their members.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to be here today. I'm just two weeks in this role, so I'm happy to have a wingman with me. I feel a little bit better having Marc-André here. I think all of you know how important the credit union sector is to Canada. Our association repr