Mr. Speaker, on April 2, I asked the Minister of Finance a question to clarify the regulations on the conversion of mutual companies. These regulations were presented on April 28.

Mutual insurance companies have been part of our local economies for more than a century. They were the response from co-operatives when private companies showed no interest in offering insurance products adapted to individuals' needs, and more specifically to farmers' needs. After years of hard work, these companies have become important players in Canada's property and casualty mutual insurance market. Their democratic value and their capacity for innovation, as well as their deep roots in the communities they serve, have also helped them to flourish. Today, Canada has a well-established mutuals sector, which has managed to accumulate significant capital reserves over the years.

However, once again, the Conservative government is letting its ideological opposition to co-operatives shine through by proposing regulations that give incentives for demutualization. My question on April 2 had to do with the two proposed regulations for property and casualty mutual insurance companies, including mutual and non-mutual policyholders, which would establish a legal framework allowing them to convert into corporations. I realize that the government is following through on an announcement it made in budget 2011, in response to demands from the Economical Mutual Insurance Company, which indicated that it wanted to begin a voluntary demutualization process.

My question for the Minister of Finance has to do with his turning a deaf ear to the concerns that have been raised for the past two years by representatives of mutual insurance companies and the official opposition, who see in the government's intentions, in its draft regulations, incentives for demutualization. Why is the government turning a deaf ear?

The mutual insurance companies' capital reserves were established on the collective nature of equity built up over generations. Demutualization under the proposed regulations will benefit only a small group of current title holders and will make them wealthy. The federal government could take Quebec's lead and adopt regulations whereby capital cannot be divided during demutualization, creating an indivisible reserve for the common good and ensuring the sustainability of co-ops and mutual associations.

In that context, I would also like the government, or the Minister of Finance to explain to Canadians why the regulations do not treat all policy holders fairly and why he did not require the capital to be invested in the community or disbursed to other mutual associations, as is the practice in other countries.

Hélène LeBlanc

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