These are policy choices that will ensure the mobility and safety of capital allocation. These are legislative and regulatory decisions that will increase future consumer and business confidence in the Canadian financial system. They will enhance our nation s competitiveness. Or they will do the reverse. Because while the status quo, in regulatory terms, is not an option, getting reform right is not automatic.
Financial services is important to Canada for two reasons.
The first is its function as the financial circulatory system for the entire economy. The second, is its contribution as an economic sector on its own, a generator of jobs and tax revenues, attracting new investment and new entrants. And to the extent that Canada is the head office of financial services firms operating internationally, Canada benefits even more. And it is a national benefit, as this audience most certainly knows. In this province alone, banks employee more than 40,000 Quebecers.