Edited sentence: Brownlee criticized them for "discounting", a practice whereby banks charged higher de facto interest rates than the legal maximum by requiring loan recipients to consent to having a portion of their loan withheld.Brownlee himself wrote the Alberta government's submission, though it was presented at the commission's Edmonton hearings by acting Premier George Hoadley.Brownlee supported both recommendations, and also attached a minority report calling for banks to end their disparate treatment of eastern and western debtors, urging that a statutory maximum interest rate be maintained and possibly lowered, and recommending that the proposed central bank be entirely government owned and controlled.He was formally appointed with the rest of the members July 31, 1933, and the commission began its work in Ottawa on August 8.In Calgary he drew testimony from farmers that farming conditions were excellent—in contrast with the wide belief in eastern Canada that western farmers' troubles were caused by drought and land unsuited for agriculture—and that the problem was "not due to Acts of God but to Acts of Man".In Victoria he questioned witnesses on how poverty among prairie farmers was hurting British Columbia's lumber and salmon packing industries.It called on the commission to recommend a government-owned central bank and controls on interest, and concluded that "the monetary system has failed".It echoed the UFA's points about interest rates and the importance of a government-owned central bank, and also accused the banks of treating the west unequally to the east.The UFA's submission, presented in Calgary by Gardiner, emphasized these points and also accused the banks of charging predatory interest rates.The commission concluded its hearings in Ottawa in September, where representatives of the banks testified.The commission's report, issued September 29, recommended the establishment of a central bank and an inquiry on the availability of credit to farmers.The royal commission conducted hearings across the country.This last recommendation would come to pass in 1938, when the Bank of Canada, originally controlled by a mix of public and private interests, was reorganized as a federal crown corporation